Helios
by Iattempttowritethings
Summary: Akio Nishimura, planned on becoming a Pro Hero like every other kid in his class, until he met some mysterious individuals who offered him a different path. A path that he believes can reform the world of Heroes.
1. A Chance Encounter

**Author's note: So this is my first fanfic and I'm doing this because I love My Hero Academia and I've always had my own ideas for villains and Pro Heroes, so in order to get some of those ideas out I'm writing this story. As you'll notice, this story will be very OC heavy, the main character is an OC and many of the other characters will be too, but allow me to explain some things.**

 **First, I want to say that I do plan on incorporating the characters from the show at some point, but not right away. Because of these eventual interactions I am tagging the groups these characters belong to, which will be met later on such as the students of class 1-A and the League of Villains. I don't want to just have all these OCs interacting with the characters right away for no reason, it just wouldn't feel right to me, and so I plan to slowly interweave my OCs interacting with the in show characters to make it more smooth and believable for the type of story I'm telling.**

 **The second thing is, this OC story is from a villain's perspective. I wanted to do an OC story, but it seems the trend for OC stories is that the OC is another student who interacts with class 1-A. In order to change it up a bit (and because I like villains anyway) I'm having the lead OC be a student who instead of choosing the path of a Pro Hero in training chooses instead the path of an amateur villain learning from a more experienced group of villains. Sorry for the long note, hope you get some enjoyment out of this story!**

Chapter 1: A Chance Encounter

* * *

 _I look ahead to observe fire, smoking buildings, and a crowd of people gathering to look at the aftermath of the battle that had just taken place. And there I was, sitting on my knees, my father's arms wrapped tightly around me, trying to shield his eight year old from the sights I had already witnessed. He was saying something, but I just looked past him with tear filled eyes at what were supposed to be "Heroes". All I saw were hypocrites._

 _6 years later_

* * *

I awoke to the familiar sound of my alarm clock blaring, as I begrudgingly got up. And just like usual I went about my usual morning routine, showering, getting dressed in my school uniform, eating, etc. Stopping in front of a mirror I examined myself to make sure I looked presentable. My bright yellow eyes examined my short spiky dark brown hair, which seemed to be in order, and it would seem the rest of my apparel was as well. With that, I was ready for the day ahead, and so I made my way to another uneventful day at school.

As usual the school day passed by without much interest, until I remember once again that the day was fast approaching, the day many of us would make that final decision on if we wanted to go to a Hero school or not. Most of the class did obviously, I mean who wouldn't want to spend their highschool life training to become a Pro Hero, but for some of us it was still a decision weighing heavy in our minds. It was after school and most of the class was already heading out the door, but I decided to stay seated and mull over my thoughts for a bit. When I was younger the decision seemed so obvious, but now every time I think about whether or not I should try to become a Hero it feels like my mind is playing a game of tug-a-war.

"Akio! Which school are you going to go to?"

My friend Tsuneo Ikeda, on the other hand, was brimming with excitement.

"Not sure." I replied rather disinterestedly.

Tsuneo's eyes widened, his light blue irises staring at me intensely before he laughed and nodded his head knowingly. "Ah I see, with a Quirk like yours I'm sure you have plenty of options! Can't decide on which school to go to, am I right?"

With a Quirk like mine? I mean I guess in comparison to his, my Quirk was pretty great. My Quirk is **Solar Powered Fire** , meaning I have the ability to shoot fire from my hands, as long as light from the sun's rays touches my skin. This of course meant my Quirk was entirely useless at night, or in a building with no windows.

I scratched my head and replied, "Well to be honest…I'm not even sure if I want to be in the Hero business."

"What?! Akio, you can't be serious! You'd let a Quirk like yours go to waste? Think of all the bad guys you could take down with it!"

Think of all the buildings I could burn down….or people I could scorch… Not to mention I'd be restricted to only stopping villains who are attacking in broad daylight.

Almost as if echoing my thoughts, a feminine voice chimed in, "Think of all the innocent people he could hurt."

Both Tsuneo and I looked over to see our classmate Kimiko Mizutani, walked over to us with her usual refined posture. Kimiko Mizutani, long flowing white hair, dark blue eyes, fair skin, a bit taller than most girls in the class, and one of the best students in the school in terms of grades and Quirk. She looked down at the two of us with a cold stare.

Tsuneo rubbed a hand through his short grey hair and chuckled nervously, "W-what's up Mizutani?"

She glared, her eyes full of disdain for us as she spoke, "What's up, is how laughable it is that either of you think that you'll be Heroes."

A few of our remaining classmates turned to look at the confrontation, while Kimiko's friends came over to listen in closer.

"What's that supposed to mean!?" Tsuneo asked defensively.

Kimiko laughed and pointed at him. "The simple fact is that your Quirk is useless," she then pointed to me "and his is dangerous."

Tsuneo's Quirk was **Liquid Walking** , meaning he could walk on any form of liquid as if it were a solid object. He knew it wasn't very combat practical, but he knew he could prove useful in saving people, rather than fighting villains.

"It…it isn't useless! And what's that about Akio's Quirk being dangerous!?"

Kimiko scoffed, "Oh right I'm sorry, his Quirk isn't dangerous, he is. Can we really risk letting someone like him train with Pro Heroes? In the end he'll just be another pathetic villain, just like his mom."

The look of annoyance on my face had become a mixture of anger and sorrow. She was always boasting about how great Heroes are, and how she was going to be one of the top ranked Heroes in the country someday. In her mind, the Pro Heroes could do no wrong, but I knew the truth, and the fact that she brought up my mom just made it even worse.

"Hey, that's too far!" In place of my silence, Tsuneo shouted in my defense.

Kimiko, just continued to glare daggers at me. I looked away, trying not to let her know she was getting under my skin. In the end she just shook her head, scoffed, and began walking out of the class; her friends in tow.

She looked back and said, "Some of us are destined to be Heroes, some of us aren't. It's time you accepted that fact."

And with that, she was gone. Tsuneo noticed my look and patted me on the shoulder.

"C'mon man, I'll buy you something from the convenience store on the way home."

I stood up and chuckled slightly, "You don't need to do that dude."

He just shook his head with a smile on his face and dragged me by the arm. "Nope, you need to cheer up, and my mom says free food helps you to forget about a bad day!"

I sighed and went along. "Fine you win, but I really doubt your mom says that."

I made it seem like I didn't care, but in reality I was incredibly thankful to Tsuneo for sticking by me, and thankfully I think he was able to pick up on that fact. He was a true friend unlike Kimiko. Yes, Kimiko actually used to be friends with the two of us, however that all changed when she learned my mom was a villain. After that day, she drifted away from us and she progressively grew to be very cold towards me. Her words still lingered in my mind.

" _Some of us are born to be Heroes, others aren't"_

Maybe she was right.

* * *

After Tsuneo and I parted ways, I began the long trek home by myself under the warmth of the low afternoon sun. With my head down, I kicked an empty can absent mindedly as I cut my way through some alleyways to save some time. My mind was muddled with thoughts of Kimiko and her friends ridiculing me. _"It's not like I want to do Hero work, but what else can I do? I'll never be a true Hero in a society like this, and I don't want to get stuck in some dead end job like dad, so what should I-"_ my thought process had come to a halt when I heard what sounded like arguing. Curious, I turned down another path in the alleyway, the voices becoming clearer.

"Li, come on, the place we have already isn't as bad as you say it is," a feminine voice whined.

A masculine voice quickly responded, "If you expect us to stay in some old vermin ridden building for the next couple of months you are sorely mistaken!"

I got a little closer, curious as to what they were talking about.

The female voice sighed with exasperation, "Look, I know a few more guys who might have a place for us, but after that we are heading straight back to the hideout. Seriously, you should be thankful, I missed my afternoon nap for this," the woman said in a tone that was accusatory yet somehow lackadaisical.

"Well then let's not waste time, come on, lead the way."

I dared to get even closer, now poking my head around the corner to see the faces these voices belonged to.

When I looked, I saw a man in a long white coat with his hood drawn, next to him was a woman with long disheveled black hair wearing a grey sweater and some darkened jeans. Suddenly, the woman looked past the man, and was looking straight at me. Reflexively I stepped back away from them as the man turned to see what caught his friend's attention, and in doing so, also spotted me. His face was hidden by a black and white mask, but through the eye slits I could see two dark green eyes staring at me murderously.

"Hmm? A school student?" the woman said with curiosity.

They were looking me up and down, examining my uniform. The man stepped closer, still analyzing me. As he got closer I then remembered who this man was, that mask, I had seen it on TV a few nights ago. The left half was white while the right half was black, and in the center was the symbol of an old fashioned scale, which was opposite colors, the left being black while the right was white. The two pans of the scale served as slits in the mask for the man to stare down his enemies with those dark judging eyes.

"Y-you…you're that villain…" my thoughts had unintentionally come out as actual words.

The woman chuckled, "Looks like you're getting famous, Libra."

The villain known as Libra, was now walking forward with haste, his hand raised. It was clear he was getting ready to use his Quirk! I quickly stepped back into the sunlight that was peeking into the alley, instantly I felt the suns warmth fill my body with heat. I raised my hand as it caught flame. _"Hopefully this will get him to back off,"_ I thought somewhat nervously as I readied my hand to spew a jet of fire.

"Oh?" the woman's curiosity was piqued once more, as a smile formed on her face.

Libra didn't stop like I planned however. Instead, he rushed in and tackled me to the ground, restraining my wrists. I was ready to shoot fire from my hands, but….nothing happened, I felt nothing, like the fire had gone out within me.

"What?" I asked nervously as I looked up at the man.

Libra got up, looking down on me like I was some kind of insignificant bug. He finally spoke, "I've made us equal. If you're still eager to fight, then by all means get up and try."

After thinking about it for a few seconds I came to the conclusion that his Quirk must somehow nullify other Quirks, and if that was the case I'd be doomed if I fought him. I quickly got to my feet and stammered out, "Look, I'm sorry I interrupted whatever this is…I swear I won't tell anyone I saw you here! I'm just a student, please I don't want trouble, I was just defending myself."

Libra glared at me, but his female friend chuckled and walked forward in-between us.

Libra had a confused expression under his mask as he stared at the pale woman.

I could see her violet eyes look at me with delighted curiosity as she asked, "Your Quirk only works in sunlight?"

Still somewhat worried about the murderous Libra behind her, instead of saying yes, I just gave a nervous nod. The woman seemed delighted as she took a step forward.

"Was your mother's name, Hinata Nishimura?"

A look of utter surprise painted my face. That was indeed my mother's name, but who was this woman and how did she know that? She took another step as she seemed to be getting excited about something.

"Are you Solar Fury's kid?!"

Ah, now I got it. This woman had probably found out my mom's name after she was taken down by Pro Heroes and her identity was revealed afterward. But still, it had been ages since I heard someone use mom's villain name (I was always thankful Kimiko never used it and still referred to her by her real name). I nodded in affirmation to the woman's question.

The woman laughed as she turned back to Libra. "Today's your lucky day Li, haven't even started looking for members and you already have one fall into your lap."

Members? What did that mean?

Libra shook his head and scoffed, "What, this kid?"

The lady in the sweater snaked around me and placed her hands on my shoulders as she shook me a little. "This right here is the genuine flesh and blood of Solar Fury! I loved to see her exploits on the news when I was in college!" She then quickly walked over to Libra as she explained, "You wanted people to help with your plan, well you got one right here." She finished with a point to me.

I was confused. Did she think I'd help them just because my mom was a villain? It seemed Libra had the same idea.

"Just because his mother was a great villain, doesn't mean he is."

The woman pleaded, "Libra, Solar Fury was good, but she could have been great if she had some actual guidance. We can help this kid unlock his true potential."

I interrupted them as I began backing away. "Look this was all a big misunderstanding, I'm just going to go now…but I swear I won't tell anyone I saw you," I explained trying to keep my voice level and calm.

"What? Hey kid-" the woman was cut off by Libra.

"What's your name kid?"

I stopped once again and looked at Libra. They already knew who my mother was, so if he really wanted to know my name he could easily find out the name of the little boy who was with Solar Fury the night she died. Taking that into consideration, I decided to just come right out with the truth, "It's Akio. Akio Nishimura."

He looked me dead in the eyes as he said, "Well Akio Nishimura, I've got a question for you. Do you really think all Heroes are just and right? Are you happy with how the world is now?"

I composed myself the best I could and thought about what I should say. If I gave an answer he didn't like he would probably kill me… even so, I answered honestly. "No. I know first-hand that not all Heroes are as noble as they seem. The fact that most Heroes are driven by greed and vanity is what makes me reluctant to become one myself." I paused, wondering if I should continue. "I…I'm afraid I'll end up like them if I become a Hero. I want to change things, not just add to the problem."

Even behind that mask I could tell he had a look of surprise as he examined my face and body language. He seemed content with the answer because he closed his eyes and nodded.

"That's a good answer. You're different than most children your age." He got a pen and scrap of paper from his friend as he hurriedly scrawled something. Next, he handed me the slip of paper, which had a phone number on it. "You're free to go kid, but if you ever want to help fix this messed up society we live in, call that number." With one fluid motion, Libra turned and began walking down the alleyway.

The woman gave a mischievous smile as she waved to me. "I really hope you call us. I'd love to see what the son of Solar Fury can do." After that the woman followed after her friend.

I had held my breath until the moment I saw both of them disappear into the alleyways. Once I knew for certain that they were gone I let out a sigh of relief, after all, that was the first time I came face to face with actual villains. Suddenly I felt the fire stir within me once more, which meant whatever Libra had done to me, had worn off. I've heard of a Pro Hero called Eraserhead with a Quirk that did something similar, but when Libra cancelled out my Quirk he called us "equal". I brushed off the thought, and began to walk the normal way home. Idly, I looked at the slip of paper with the number on it as I walked.

"Fix things huh?"

* * *

 **Thanks for reading. The chapters will get longer as I continue to write the story, but for now they will be fairly short. If you have any advice for me please leave a review or message me.**

 **Also, I've already come up with quite a few ideas for villains and Pro Heroes, but if you feel like sharing an OC idea of yours and want it in the story then by all means message me and tell me about them, like if they're a hero or villain, their Quirk, their personality type, etc. Be as detailed as you want.**


	2. In Her Footsteps

Chapter 2: In Her Footsteps

The afternoon sun was now set, as night quickly approached. The two villains made their way back to their makeshift hideout.

"Still no good, what a waste!" Libra shouted as he kicked a trashcan in frustration.

The woman known as Reina Sayo, just sighed in response. "Today wasn't a complete waste. After all, we did find a potential new recruit."

The two continued to talk, as they treaded the dark back streets of the city.

"Hmph, when I looked in that boy's eyes, I could tell his feelings were genuine, but I also saw a hint of hesitation. If he's going to help us set this world straight he'll need to show conviction and make that final choice to abandon the false world Heroes have built around him." Libra seemed to have a far off look seeming to be recalling the earlier events with the boy.

Reina chuckled, "Are you hoping he calls?"

Libra looked back with narrowed eyes. "Of course I do. It's rare to meet a child who doesn't blindly look up to pathetic Pro Heroes."

"Weren't you a fan of All Might when you were younger?"

"First off, he's different! And second, that was then, this is now!" Libra yelled in defense.

Reina couldn't help but laugh, "Alright, alright, keep it down."

Libra realized he had gotten a little worked up, and thus he quickly turned away from his associate while recomposing his calculated aura. Brushing off his outburst, Libra continued, "Anyway, that doesn't matter now. If we're going to make a lasting change we can't just kill off random Pros," Libra explained.

"Ah, quality over quantity then?"

"Exactly, Corasu City here is just the beginning," Libra said with a sweeping arm motion at the buildings around them. "When we're done here, we'll hit Tokyo, and then after that, Musutafu. We'll kill All Might." Libra's voice was filled with hope, "With the Symbol of Peace dead, and all the Pros we'll kill, the world will slowly come back into balance. This world ran by Heroes, leaning towards peace and order, will be brought back to perfect balance, pure equal order and chaos," Libra's words dripped with reverence and delight as he imagined his perfect world.

"Easy there pal, we still got a lot of work to do," Reina remarked, as she walked by the daydreaming Libra.

Libra shook his head and grumbled, following behind his partner. Even though their ideals were different, they shared the same goal of killing off the Pros, and in some ways, the two needed each other if they were going to complete that goal.

* * *

I was at home stewing on what Libra had said to me. I was in my room sitting at my computer desk idly browsing online, curious to see if Libra was more infamous than I thought. I didn't find much else than the report that had already been shown on TV, although there has been speculation that Libra could have been the one pulling the strings involving a string of petty crimes. I looked to my left where the scrap of paper rested upon my desk. _"If you ever want to help fix this messed up society we live in, call that number."_ Once again, I held the scrap of paper with the number as those words ran through my mind. A million thoughts ran through my head. What are they planning? Should I call? What would dad think? What would my friends think? Wouldn't I just be proving Kimiko right by doing this?

I sighed as I rubbed my head, trying to relax. A sudden brush against my leg caused me to look down to see my black cat Shade, purring as he rubbed his head against my leg. I leaned down and scratched him behind the ears. I could see a contented smile form on his little face. "Any ideas on what I should do little buddy?" Obviously he didn't reply.

*slam!*

My head shot up upon hearing the door downstairs slam shut. "Looks like dad's home." I got up and slowly made my way downstairs, where I spotted my father sitting on the couch undoing his tie. "Hey dad," I said absently.

He let out a tired breath as he responded, "Hey boy. School going well?"

"Yeah, of course." I sat down next to him.

He gave me a questioning look. It was a look I recognized, it was the look he gave me when he thought I did something wrong or he thought I was lying. Running a hand through his short blonde hair, he looked back at me and asked, "Alright, what is it?"

I wasn't sure how to approach the topic. What was I supposed to say? Hey dad, I ran into some villains today and they offered me a chance to help them out with some shady business, should I give them a call? As such, I rubbed the back of my head awkwardly wondering what to say.

"Dad, can we…talk about mom?"

Saying those words got the reaction I was expecting. My dad was now glaring at me, clearly wondering why on Earth I'd bring that up out of the blue. Despite his look of disdain for the topic, I continued.

"I just wanted to know some things that we've never really talked about. I want to know why she was a villain and why you married her."

It looked like he was about to deny my request, but surprisingly, he took off his glasses and stroked his face. It looked like he was preparing an answer, and thankfully he provided one.

"Your mom was…a free spirit. I knew her for a while before I found out she was a villain, and she had always been 'wild'. I had always tried to keep to myself and not get into trouble, but your mom was outgoing and didn't care about breaking the rules." I could see that dad was getting wrapped up in memories of when he and mom first dated. "In some ways, both of us showed each other different ways of living. I taught her to rein it in a little and try to slow down in order to enjoy the simple things in life, while she taught me to 'live a little'." He was smiling to himself, but that smile quickly turned back into a neutral expression as he looked at me. "Anyway, point is, I believe your mom was a villain because she didn't know any other way to live. She hated the idea of people trying to tell her what she could and couldn't do."

"What do you mean?" I asked, just trying to understand my mother better.

"What I mean is your mom didn't choose to be a villain she was labeled as one, and she accepted that role. She just did whatever she felt like, which was mostly burning things and stealing things, and obviously, Heroes showed up to stop her. What started off as casual inclination turned into her job and passion. Some nameless thug with a fire Quirk became the villain known as Solar Fury. And just to clarify, your mom wasn't some deranged lunatic; she never tried to kill anyone. Of course she hurt people, especially Heroes, but that was never her goal."

I soaked in all this information, nodding slowly, grateful that my father was telling me all this. "So you knew she was a villain when you married her right?"

"Of course I did! After spending so much time with a person you're eventually going to find out what their Quirk is, and after discovering what her Quirk was it wasn't hard for me to put the pieces together. After I found out who she was, I was hesitant, but I stuck with her and immediately began to convince her to give up her line of work."

I was hesitant to ask my next question. "Do you…blame the Heroes that killed her?"

He was silent for a long time before he leaned forward, not looking at me, but instead looking straight forward, imagining the faces of the man and woman who killed my mother. "In all honesty…I do. She was a villain, I know, but those two…well….they certainly didn't act like Heroes that night."

My dad seemed lost in thought, until he snapped back to attention and looked me dead in the eye. "I'm sorry, but why are we talking about this all of the sudden?"

I gave him a half-truth answer, "Well…some kids in my class brought her up today and I couldn't help thinking about it."

His accusatory look slowly dissolved into one of detached pity, as he gave me a pat on the back. "Don't listen to them. Your mom was an angel compared to some other villains, and she was a wonderful woman when she wasn't wearing a mask."

To my surprise, my dad then hugged me, albeit a brief and light hug.

Dad had become more distant after mom died; the smile he once wore daily had become a rare occurrence. He usually wanted to be left alone after he got off work, and even when he was home the two of us didn't interact often. I didn't fully understand when I was young, but I grew to understand that when my mother died, a piece of him did as well.

Now that I think about it the same goes for me. Mom always made me take risks, go out to interact with the neighborhood kids, and be adventurous. I guess her energetic personality rubbed off on me. Hell, if it wasn't for her encouraging me to go out and explore the neighborhood I may not have met Tsuneo. After she died, that sense of spontaneity in me slowly died down, which my father chalked up to me just becoming older, Tsuneo took note of my personality change too, but never really talked about it beyond mentioning how I seemed different.

After our brief chat, I awkwardly thanked my father for talking, and I went back upstairs to leave him to relax. Entering my room I looked to the right to spot Shade curled up on my bed taking a cat nap. I scooted him over, as I decided to lay down myself. Without realizing it I had steadily drifted off to sleep, while still wondering about what I should do.

Little did I know this would be the last time sleeping in my own home.

* * *

Libra and Reina had arrived to the abandoned apartment building, in which they used the basement as a temporary hideout.

"Gorou, we're back. Make me some coffee," Reina loudly announced as the two entered the basement.

The tidy looking man known as Gorou got up from where he sat, complaining, "What am I, your god damn secretary?"

"Pretty much," she said lazily as she hopped onto the tattered couch, laying on it in order to rest her sore feet.

Gorou begrudgingly went to go brew some coffee, as he mumbled in a mocking tone, "Yeah it's nice to see you too sister, glad you didn't get nabbed by some Heroes." He set to work preparing coffee for himself and his bossy sibling, turning back to yell to Libra, "You want anything?"

"I'm fine Gorou, thank you for all your all help."

He smiled, happy that someone was around to thank him. "Just remember, when the time comes I can help out in the field too," Gorou began as he cleaned two coffee cups. "I know I can't go toe to toe with a Pro Hero, but I can still help."

"Don't worry Gorou, when the time comes I'll have a place for you on the team," he reassured the overworked brother.

The three settled in for the night, Gorou doing menial tasks, Libra devising future plans, and Reina was on her laptop and phone as she set to work finding potential group members.

* * *

It was the next day, and I sat at the edge of my bed staring down at my phone. I thought about my future, my mother's past, and the night she died…..I knew what my choice was. "If what he said was true…this is my chance to change things. I can't make the world a better place by becoming a Hero, but maybe I can by becoming a villain." I entered the number on my phone and called the two villains from yesterday. I got an answer quicker than I thought.

"Hello?" I could hear the woman from yesterday on the other line.

"Hi, it's Akio, from yesterday."

"Akio! I knew you'd call, but I wasn't expecting it to be _this_ soon." Even without seeing her I could feel a devilish smile had begun to form on her face. "Oh well, the sooner you join us the better so it's completely fine. And I'm sure Libra will take it as a sign of your dedication that you responded so quickly."

After that, the woman (who told me I could call her SR, for the time being) explained to me how things were going to work if I joined. She explained that I'd need to leave my home and father behind in order to focus full time on my training and whatever plans they had in mind. I knew I'd need to be trained by them if I was going to help them fight against Pro Heroes, and on the issue concerning leaving my father…well I knew he'd be fine not having me around. I just hoped he wouldn't be disappointed in the decision I was making. In the end I agreed to everything she said, and in return she told me that later that night someone would be waiting nearby my home to take me to their hideout.

This was it, the first step to my new life.


	3. Departure

Chapter 3: Departure

For some, today would just be another ordinary day, but for me it was the day my life would finally change. Hopefully for the better. As I sat in class, rather than listening to the lesson, I was going over a check list in my mind of what I'd need to bring with me to what was going to be my new home for the foreseeable future. Clothes, phone, whatever cash I have saved up, maybe some family pictures, Shade of course. …..Was that really all I'd need? Well it's probably better to pack light anyway.

I spent lunch as usual, sitting at my desk with Tsuneo, but it felt so odd knowing that after today I wouldn't be seeing him for a while.

"Akio? You good man?"

"Hmm?"

"You're staring off into space."

"Oh, yeah don't worry, I was just thinking about things," I said trying to shrug off his worry.

Tsuneo leaned in closer as he said, "Hey man, if you're feeling nervous about the future don't worry, I am too."

I was a little surprised for a second, but then I realized what he was talking about.

He continued with a smile, "It's finally going to happen; not too long now, we'll finally begin our paths to become Pro Heroes! It's all a bit overwhelming, I know, but we've still got time to prepare ourselves!"

Yep just like I thought, Tsuneo is still incredibly excited to finally get a chance to become a Hero. But then it occurred to me, what if Tsuneo found out about what I'm going to do? He'd probably hate me, after all, he's wanted to be a Hero just like his dad ever since he was little.

"Hey Tsuneo."

He looked at me with a quizzical expression.

"Do you think you can make it as a Hero? I mean…I'm not trying to be rude or anything, but are you sure your Quirk is cut out for the life of a Pro Hero?"

After asking that I was honestly expecting him to look hurt or defensive, but instead he just chuckled and smiled. "With a Quirk like mine, could I go head to head with a villain? No, I don't think I could honestly. But, will that stop me from being a Hero? Hell no." Tsuneo had an unusual look of determination on his face as he continued, "No matter what my Quirk is, or how weak I may seem, I will still be a Hero. Smiling in the face of danger and saving those in need, even at the risk of your own life, to me that's what it means to be a Hero."

A look of utter bewilderment was plastered on my face. I couldn't help it, it was so rare to hear Tsuneo talk like that. I mean, I knew how much being a Hero meant to him, but I think this gave me a new perspective on how serious he was.

He smiled at me with pride. "So even though I'll have a tougher time than you, you better be ready for me to be right by your side when we both become Pros!"

I honestly wish I shared his sentiment, but I just didn't feel the same way. I wasn't content with a pointless and detrimental job as a Pro Hero. No, I was going to change things, even if it meant working with villains.

I put on a smile. "Yeah, I have no doubts now that you'll make a great Hero." That wasn't entirely a lie.

He grinned back with self-satisfaction. "Heh, you know it man! Hey, maybe you could be my sidekick!" he said jokingly.

I rolled my eyes and laughed as we enjoyed the rest of our lunch.

* * *

The rest of the day passed by without much interest. Tsuneo and I were walking out of school reminiscing about random things from our childhood, as we walked by the old stone fountain in front of the school. Suddenly, a tendril of water burst from the fountain and smacked into Tsuneo, drenching the front of his body from head to toe. It didn't take long to spot the source of the event, Kimiko and a couple of her friends were giggling at Tsuneo from a few feet away from the fountain.

"Hey, what the hell!?" Tsuneo shouted to her.

"What? It's just a little water," Kimiko retorted as she stood there with her arms crossed, a smirk on her face expecting Tsuneo to challenge her.

Kimiko's Quirk was **Water Manipulation**. She could control any body of water that she was in close proximity of, for example, she could cause large tendrils of water to rise from a lake, or could create a wall of water in a swimming pool.

Thankfully though, Tsuneo ignored them and kept walking forward. I lagged behind him, thinking on whether I should do something or not. I made my decision after I heard what Kimiko said next.

"A useless Quirk and he's a coward, and he thinks he can be a Pro Hero? What a joke, he needs to learn his place."

I immediately walked over to Kimiko, contempt filled in my voice, "I don't know what your problem is, but if you think you'd make a better Hero than Tsuneo, then you're goddamn delusional. You're just lucky you were born with a better Quirk."

Kimiko's expression was one of scorn, as she stepped closer to me. "Lucky? Luck has nothing to do with it! Unlike most people around here, I've been training to be a Hero since the day I was born! Excuse me for trying to save that idiot!"

"Save!?"

She looked at me as if I were a complete moron. "Yes, save! Do you honestly think he can pass the entrance exam with that Quirk of his? And even if he does, he'll never survive in the real world as a Hero! It's my duty as a future Hero to save people, even if it means saving them from themselves."

I wasn't sure what to say. On one hand I could understand where she was coming from, but on the other, her treatment of Tsuneo was completely uncalled for.

I sighed and started to walk away from the fountain, calling back to kimiko, "If you want to be a Hero, maybe you should act like one."

Kimiko was going to respond, but seemed to stop herself as she became recomposed and walked the other way. I met up with a waiting, and drying, Tsuneo.

"Hey man, I heard some of that, thanks for sticking up for me. I was just trying to be the bigger person and walk away."

"No, I understand, I usually ignore her too but today…today was different (that difference being this could be the last chance I have to tell Kimiko off). I was just trying to talk some sense into her."

Tsuneo wiped his wet grey hair to the side as he chuckled, "Yeah well, I'm not too sure how easy it is to talk her into anything."

With that, the two of us walked together for a bit longer, until we arrived at the usual spot where we split off. This was it, this could be the last time I'd see Tsuneo for a while.

"Welp, today was interesting. I'll see you around man," Tsuneo said as he gave a short wave of his hand.

"Hey, Tsuneo."

He stopped to look at me.

"You're going to be a great Hero, don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

He laughed, "Geez man I already know that! But thanks anyway. And don't forget you'll be one too!"

"Yeah," is all I said as the two of us went separate ways. If there was one person who could convince me that I'd be a great Hero, it was Tsuneo. But I knew I had a choice to make. The choice that would make everyone else happy, and the one I'd be happy with. As I watched my old friend disappear into the distance, I uttered, "Sorry Tsuneo, but I've already made my choice..."

* * *

When I arrived at my home I set to work collecting everything I'd be taking with me. As usual, my father still wasn't back from work, so I was able to gather my things without him wondering what I was up to. I placed my clothes and other items I deemed necessary into a brown duffle bag, and after that I placed Shade into his old cat carrier. As much as I wanted to leave him here, dad always worked late and I knew he'd probably forget to feed him, not to mention he wouldn't get much attention.

"Don't worry little guy, you'll only be in there awhile."

Shade had a dissatisfied look, clearly unhappy with his confined space. With all my things packed and ready the next thing I had to do was leave a note for dad. I wondered if leaving a note would be a good idea or not, but in the end I decided I didn't want dad to worry (if he did end up worrying about me). So in the end I decided on leaving a vague note, only mentioning that I was leaving and that I'd be fine on my own. Now all I had to do was wait.

And that waiting was absolute torture. I kept milling about the house, anticipating a text from SR, telling me that it was time to leave. And all that time waiting gave way to me worrying if dad would come back early, or maybe they had reconsidered and weren't telling me, or maybe-

*Bzzt*

Suddenly, my phone buzzed. Quickly I looked at my phone to see a message from SR.

 _SR: Akio, it's time. My brother is waiting for you down the street by a grey van. This is your last chance to back out. If you've changed your mind, tell him and we'll call this off. But, we both know you've already made the right choice._

She was right, it's time to let go of my fears and just go. Go forward and embrace whatever this new life would bring. With cat carrier in hand and my duffle bag over my shoulder I left my home and made my way down the street, looking back for one last glimpse of my home. It didn't take long to spot a man leaning against an old grey van, its paint was faded and it seemed a touch run down, but it looked like it worked well enough.

I observed the man who'd be my guide to the hideout. He was average sized man in his early thirties, who wore a simple dark button up shirt with dress pants to match, the glasses he wore completed his refined look. The next thing I noticed was the resemblance to his sister; his eyes too were a shade of violet, and his hair was that same dark color, although unlike his sister his was short and neatly combed back.

"So you're the one my sister has been going on about," the man said as I approached.

Meeting face to face with him I replied, "Yeah, I guess so."

He outstretched his hand to me. "Well, my name is Gorou Sayo, I hope we get along well."

I shook his hand as I replied, "Yeah likewise. Oh, and my name is Akio Nishimura."

Gorou looked down to see my cat carrier. He had a raised eyebrow as he inquired, "You're bringing a cat?"

I replied a bit sheepish, "Yeah…it's just that he doesn't really have anywhere else to go so I decided to bring him with me. I hope that's not a problem…"

Gorou stroked his chin. "No, I don't think it'll be too much of an issue. In fact I'm sure my sister will treat this little guy better than she does me," he said as he knelt down to look at Shade within the carrier. He stood back up and looked around. "Anyway, we should be off."

I nodded in agreement. Hopping into the van with my things, Gorou gave me a nod as he drove us into the night. We drove for a while, until we arrived in the outer limits of the city, practically on the outskirts. Bad neighborhoods, dark alleyways, and rundown buildings, definitely the kind of place I'd imagine villains to hang around. Soon enough we arrived at a rundown abandoned apartment building, Gorou pulled the van around back.

"So this is the place?" I asked.

"Indeed. My sister is looking into more hospitable, yet secure, locations for a hideout. For now though we must make do with this building."

"I see…" showing a bit of my dejection.

"Don't worry, I'm sure we'll be out of here soon enough. And hey, look on the bright side, at least we have electricity and running water….most of the time." Noticing my look of concern he just cleared his throat and said, "Alright, let's head in."

Anxiously I followed Gorou inside the dilapidated building. It was really happening, I was going to be working with a group of villains. The carrier and duffle bag I carried seemed to weigh heavier as we approached the entrance to the basement. Gorou entered nonchalantly.

"Hey, I'm back, and I brought Akio."

Surprisingly the spacious basement area was much cleaner, and even slightly furnished. Considering it already had a small kitchen area I assumed that the basement area was made to (or was renovated to) accommodate more people wanting to live here. Reina approached with a smile on her face as she rubbed her eyes. Looks like she had been sleeping.

Yawning she greeted us, "Welcome back brother, and welcome to you Akio. My name is Reina Sayo."

"Well it's nice to properly meet you," I said shaking her hand. "So SR is?"

"Oh that? That's just the pseudonym I use to talk with most of my online contacts." Suddenly she crouched down and smiled wider. "And who's this little fella?"

Reina was poking at Shade, who was still trying to escape the confines of his cat carrier. "Oh right, this is Shade. I hope you don't mind but I kinda had to bring him…"

Before I had even finished my sentence, Reina had already opened the carrier and was holding the feline affectionately.

Gorou leaned next to me whispering, "I don't think she minds."

"What's going on here?"

I looked over to see Libra was here as well, still wearing his mask from the other day. Guess he doesn't take it off very often.

Reina looked back and stood up, still holding onto Shade. "Hey Li, Akio showed up," she held up Shade and smiled "and he brought a friend!"

Libra…was not amused to say the least.

"We are not having that filthy thing in here. This place is already bad enough as is."

Reina looked aghast. "Little Shade isn't filthy! Look at his cute little face," Reina emphasized the last part by holding him up to Libra.

"Don't care. Get rid of it," Libra responded sternly.

I decided to interject with an important question, "I've been meaning to ask actually, which one of you is in charge exactly?"

"I am," they both said at the same time.

I had a confused expression, whilst Gorou closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.

Reina sat Shade on the ground (who wandered off to explore his new surroundings) as she explained, "Well it's more like a shared leadership."

Libra sighed in annoyance, "Yes well, enough of this nonsense, it's getting late and we have a busy day tomorrow."

Reina nodded. "Right, you and Gorou need to set up Akio's training, and I need to check in with our new potential member, and Elizabeth."

"Exactly. Gorou, why don't you go make sure Akio's room is ready."

Gorou nodded as he walked off somewhere else in the dimly lit basement.

"Hey Libra," I said to get his attention.

He just looked back at me, same dissatisfied expression beneath his mask.

"Thank you for letting me join your group, but I need to ask something. I want to fix the society we live and so do you, but I'm just curious to know, what you mean when you say it?" I asked.

"I simply wish to restore things to the proper balance."

Libra took notice of my confused expression and decided to explain further.

"I believe that the world is built on two very important factors, those being order and chaos. Heroes are the guardians of order, while villains are the harbingers of chaos. But nowadays Heroes dominate our society: peace reigns, countless villains repressed, order has a strangle hold on our society. This has all given way to a complacent populace protected by false Heroes driven by fame and greed. I plan to use chaos to tear down the false world they've built, starting by killing the Heroes they've come to rely so heavy on."

I was silent for a moment before I found the words to respond, "I think I understand what you mean. I look at it a little differently than you, but when you talk about false Heroes I know what you mean…I have firsthand experience."

Reina continued to listen with interest, while Libra's expression grew softer.

"If you think your plan can put an end to false Heroes, then I will train and work with you to help achieve that goal!"

Reina smiled, and Libra stepped closer to me. He outstretched his hand, looking at me expectantly. I smiled and shook his hand as he spoke.

"You certainly have the determination Akio, I'll give you that much. But you'll need to be put through rigorous training if you're going to go up against the Pros."

I looked at him with confidence. "I know, but I'm ready, I'll do anything it takes."

Libra laughed, which was certainly surprising to hear. "Very well then, we'll just have to see if you can live up to those words." Libra then turned to Reina, "Why don't you show the boy to his room, I'm sure your brother has it ready by now."

"Yeah probably, come on Akio," Reina said in a tired, yet happy, voice as she led the way.

* * *

Libra sat down on the couch as he thought things over. With potential new members on the way, and Reina and Gorou being so productive, Libra was feeling confident about the future. Libra suddenly felt something settle next to him.

"Oh, I almost forgot about you…" Libra said glaring down at Shade, who decided to curl up on the cushion next to him. Hesitantly, Libra reached over and scratched Shade behind the ears. "Prove yourself useful to me cat, if you see any rodents around here I want you to kill them, understood?"

Shade just continued to purr contently.

"I'll assume that's a yes."

* * *

Reina showed me to a small room which had a single light bulb to illuminate the space, and it appeared that someone set up a mattress with some rather clean pillows and bedding. That someone being Gorou, who was now exiting the tiny space.

"I apologize for these lackluster accommodations Akio, but it is something we all must bear with until my sister here decides to find us a proper hideout," Gorou finished with a raised eyebrow to his yawning sister.

"Yeah yeah, I'm dealing with that," she said casually to her sibling. "Anyway you guys get some sleep, it's time for me to get some work done."

And with that, the two of them had left me to sleep in my new makeshift room. The mattress certainly wasn't as comfortable as my old bed, but I didn't care. The path I've chosen won't be easy, but I'll just have to work hard and try to follow everyone's guidance. I wasn't nervous about the future anymore, in fact, I was excited.


	4. Time Flies

Chapter 4: Time Flies

I awoke, surprisingly, not to the sound of my alarm, but from the alert noise I get when someone messages me. Without even needing to check I could already tell who the message was from. With a quick glance at my phone I confirmed my theory, it was indeed Tsuneo.

 _Tsuneo: Hey man, look I'm sorry I keep messaging you, but seriously man your dad is worried about you, and so am I! I don't care if you're running off to some other city or something, but at least let your friends and family know you're ok! If you need to go off on your own that's fine but please just let everyone know something bad didn't happen… Talk to you soon hopefully_.

"Maybe I should just block him at this point…"

For the first couple of days I hadn't gotten a message from anyone but my dad demanding to know where I went. But soon enough, Tsuneo began texting me in the morning, wondering if I was sick or something. Kimiko even asked for my number from him so she could send me a few texts as well, her messages were also ones of concern, but of course they had that usual harsh tone she spoke with. Judging by Tsuneo's latest message I assume he talked to my dad last night and learned about me leaving.

Feeling parched and too awake to go back to sleep I decided to get up and go get a drink. On my way to our living/kitchen area, I spotted Reina on the couch still on her laptop just like she was when I saw her last night.

"Hey Reina, you're up early," I said with a yawn.

She turned to me, brushing aside her unkempt hair as she laughed, "Up early? I never went to sleep."

If she was always staying up all night, followed by staying up for a bit of the day…..the cause of those dark bags under her eyes had become quite apparent.

"You're a night owl?" I asked while looking in the fridge.

"I am actually, but there's still work to do during the day so I don't get much proper sleep."

That explains her constant napping.

"I already made coffee, why don't you have some, and bring me a cup while you're at it," Reina said, still typing away at her laptop.

Pouring two cups of fairly hot coffee, I made my way over to the couch and handed one to Reina. I took a seat as she sipped on her drink.

"So, how's training going?" Reina asked, eyes still focused on the laptops screen.

"Well it's….tiring."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, Libra says I need to improve my physique before he can teach me to properly fight. So he's been making me work out practically none-stop, but I understand, with how my Quirk works I need to be able to fight without it.

* * *

After my first night, Libra examined my body. He wasn't too impressed by what he saw.

"If you're anything like Solar Fury, the strength of your Quirk shouldn't be an issue, however it's your physical strength that worries me," Libra explained while examining me.

"Well my Quirk isn't based around strength, why would I worry about that?" I asked.

Libra shook his head with clear disappointment, "Akio, your Quirk only works in sunlight, what are you going to do if you have to face an opponent at night?"

After hearing that I felt like a complete idiot. He was right, if we ever had a mission at night I'd be useless, unless I can hold my own even without a Quirk.

"But fear not, I am going to train you how to fight…after we get you in shape of course."

My curiosity was piqued, "Are you a good fighter Libra? Does it have to do with your Quirk?"

I couldn't see his face but I could tell he was smirking while explaining, "When it comes to hand to hand combat and using small bladed weapons, yes I am quite experienced. After all, my Quirk is dependent on it." He held up his hand as if he were imagining using it. "My Quirk is **Equalize** , if I can touch someone for more than three seconds I render both my opponent and myself Quirkless for five minutes."

"Both of you?" I asked in disbelief.

"Yes, my Quirk puts me and my opponent on equal footing, no powers, only our very own strength as human beings. And so I've trained to be as quick as I can in dispatching my opponent. Because my Quirk only works on one person for five minutes I prefer to fight lone Pro Heroes, or a small group if I know they have weak Quirks."

"I see," I said with silent admiration. Even though his Quirk isn't that strong he still wants to take on the world of Pro Heroes.

"Anyway, enough talk, it's time we get to work training that weak body of yours. Once you're in shape I shall teach you how to fight without your Quirk."

And thus began my week of work outs with Libra.

* * *

Reina downed what remained of her coffee as she asked, "I noticed you've also been spending time with my brother, what's that about?"

"You don't know?"

Reina smirked. "Nope, this last week has been talking with contacts, drinking coffee, and taking naps. Haven't really chatted with him since a few days ago when he came back from buying things for Shade."

I leaned back on the couch, relaxing my aching body as I continued to tell the past events of the week, "Well he's making me study."

"Study?"

"Yeah…"

* * *

Literally right after my first training session with Libra, Gorou had come up to me rather excitedly.

"Akio, I shall be your tutor from today forth!"

Still sore and heaving from Libra training me non-stop for hours I looked up at him confused. "Tutor?"

"Correct. Just because you are now an aspiring villain does not mean I will sit idly by and let you slack off on your education!"

" _What are you my dad?"_ I thought still staring at him.

"Now then, come see me in a few moments after you've rested a bit. I have already researched what a boy your age should be studying in school and I've already set up lessons to teach you," he finished with a prideful smile whilst tipping his glasses.

" _He can't be serious…"_

He was serious. Surprisingly though he seemed to know what he was talking about for the most part, obviously he wasn't perfect, but it really didn't feel all too different from learning at school. During this time I actually learned about Gorou's Quirk as well.

"My Quirk?"

"Yeah, I'm just curious to know what it is," I said while filling out some notes.

He stroked his chin, "Well I'd have to tell you at some point so I might as well explain it now." He readjusted his glasses as he began his explanation. "My Quirk is **Decoy** , it allows me to create up to seven imitations of myself or someone else."

"That sounds useful," I said with interest.

"Yes, but it's more complex than it seems. You see, my decoys cannot think for themselves, nor can they use their originals Quirk."

Noticing my curious look, Gorou decided to treat this as an educational lecture and began his live demonstration. Gorou closed his eyes as a black glow with a hint of violet poured off his body. Soon enough a copy of him split off and stood next to him with a neutral expression.

Gorou pointed as he lectured, "As you can see, it looks just like me in every way." He began poking and prodding at the unresponsive copy. "But like I said, my decoys are completely unresponsive and unmoving, unless I think of a command while creating one." He closed his eyes once more as he spawned another decoy version of himself; however this one crouched down on one knee. "While creating this one I thought the command ' _stay crouched on one knee'_ and thus until a certain amount of time has passed or it is badly damaged, it shall continue to be crouched here."

I observed his decoys with curiosity, not even realizing Gorou had a pencil in each hand, until he used said pencils to stab both decoys in the throat. I reeled back in surprise as the two fakes faded away into a black dust.

"I hope you enjoyed this little side lesson, but let's get back to regular school work shall we," he said while tapping at my notebook.

And thus I fell into a routine of training with Libra followed up by Gorou's tutoring.

* * *

Reina was smiling to herself. "You know you're really helping my brother out as much as he's helping you."

"I am?"

She set aside her laptop as she leaned back reminiscing, "Gorou always wanted to be a teacher. He never specified what subject he wanted to teach, but he liked to teach people new things and explain things they didn't understand. When we were kids he'd help the students in our class struggling with lessons."

A teacher huh? Wonder why he didn't become one. Looking back at Reina, another thought crossed my mind.

"Hey Reina, what's your Quirk?"

Reina looked confused as she asked back, "My Quirk?"

I become a bit more sheepish. Maybe it was an embarrassing Quirk or something? "It's just that I know Libra's Quirk and Gorou's , but not yours."

The older woman grew silent as she leaned forward. Looking downward, she said in a low voice, "I'm Quirkless, actually."

"Oh…I'm sorry," somehow those words came out reflexively. I mean, living in a world where almost all of humanity has a special power but you don't. I couldn't even begin to imagine what that must be like for her.

"Don't worry about it, I've had plenty of time to get used to it, trust me," she said with her usual casual smile. Yet I couldn't help but sense some underlying pain in her words.

"Gorou has a Quirk though, so I just figured…"

Reina picked up where I trailed off, "It's because of our mother, she didn't have a Quirk either. It's not a big deal, I just got unlucky is all." She paused for a few seconds, mulling over whether she should carry on with this topic. By the resigned way she leaned back with her arms crossed I could tell she was ready to talk about some uncomfortable things. "When I was younger I loathed the fact that I didn't have a Quirk. Day in and day out, I just kept despairing that everyone around me was getting a Quirk while I was still normal old me. As I grew older, my friends abandoned me, they wanted to play with their Quirks and dream about becoming Heroes, how could I ever hope to relate to them? Later I even started to feel jealous towards Gorou despite the fact he always defended me…"

I was going to stop her, I felt terrible for bringing up these bad memories of hers, however she looked at me with a grin.

"But then I met someone who taught me something important."

* * *

" _So what."_

" _So…what?"_

" _Yeah, you heard me. Just because you don't have a Quirk doesn't make you worthless."_

" _But…"_

 _The boy knelt down to the tearful girl, in a firm voice he said, "Do you want to just lay down and give up? So what if you can't be a Hero, we have enough of them anyway." The boy looked over to see where some of the other school children were talking and laughing carelessly. "They rejected you just because they think you aren't as good as them, but you can prove them wrong. Just be what you want to be, and if people say you're lesser than them because you don't have a Quirk," the boy raised his hand, a harsh look from his dark green eyes, "I'll make them know what it feels like to be Quirkless."_

* * *

Reina's old expression of a carefree smile returned to her face. "Just because you don't have a Quirk, doesn't make you worthless." She looked at me, her eyes brighter than I had ever seen them. "I took those words to heart."

Suddenly a voice from behind us said, "You know, you left out the part where you were crying profusely."

We both turned back to see Libra. Reina kept her smile, but it now had a hint of embarrassment.

"Me crying? Come on I was sad but I wasn't THAT sad."

Libra stifled a laugh. "Oh really? Because I remember that interaction beginning because I heard some annoying girl crying."

Reina was waving her hand as if brushing away the details, "Whatever, your memory sucks."

It felt like the two of them had forgotten I was sitting there, as they exchanged glances only two longtime friends would understand. It's a look I know well.

* * *

Tsuneo stared down at his phone.

 _Message sent_

"Hope you're okay…wherever you are."

The young man pocketed his phone as he made his way to school. Walking down the city streets, his mind was filled with worry for his closest friend. Where would he run away to? Why did he run? What if he runs into a villain or something? Tsuneo shook his head at that last thought. Akio wouldn't have any trouble with a villain, his Quirk would see to that.

Tsuneo entered through the school gate like usual, only to be stopped by Kimiko.

"Akio still hasn't responded to my texts, you?" she asked impatiently.

"Um, no he hasn't."

She huffed, "That idiot! He's missing so much school, honestly why would he run off, and where could he have possibly gone!?"

Tsuneo was quite baffled to see Kimiko of all people so concerned about Akio. Then again, the three of them had been much closer when they were younger. "Hey um-"

Before he could even start his sentence, Kimiko walked away grumbling, still trying to fathom why Akio left.

Tsuneo let out a sigh, "I wish I knew…"

The two students made their way to class; they would need to focus on their own futures rather than Akio. After all, the entrance exam for Sanctuary High School was in five months. Even without his friend, and even with Kimiko's belittlements, Tsuneo still strived to get into the Hero Course.

* * *

I continued with my routine of training and studying. There'd be a few days where I'd take breaks, help Reina look for a better hideout, or practice using my Quirk up on the roof. Months passed, and as I continued to grow stronger (in regards to my Quirk as well as my body) we picked up new members along the way. Not as many as Libra would have liked, but it was a start.

I awoke one morning like any other, but as I entered our living area I came upon an odd scene.

"Habrok, what are you doing?"

Habrok, the large hawk man, was currently holding Shade's food bowl up in the air. Shade, understandably, sat at Habrok's feet waiting for his food.

"Akio, I will not let this continue any longer. Little Shade is a predator, and we are only dulling his fangs by providing him with food. The little beast must embrace his instincts and hunt for his food," the large man sternly said, his large golden hawk eyes narrowed at the feline.

"Habrok, Shade has been a house cat since he was a kitten; he's used to eating cat food."

"Humph, fine." Habrok sat the food bowl in front of Shade, who began eating happily. He then turned to me, arms crossed as he looked down at me. "I hope you are not slacking on your training Akio, I am eager for our rematch soon."

"Yeah don't worry, I don't think you'll be able to beat me this time."

"We shall see," he chuckled as he cracked his knuckles.

Habrok, his Quirk, **Red Tail Hawk**. His Quirk gives him the abilities and features of a hawk, such as: having improved eyesight, being equipped with flesh ripping retractable talons on his hands and feet, and having two large hawk wings adorning his back. Habrok's human shaped body is covered head to toe in feathers (minus his hands and feet which are the skin texture of regular hawk's feet). Despite his body having a human structure, his head is entirely hawk-like. Also due to his large wings, he wore no shirt, opting to cover up with beige camo pants and combat boots.

Habrok was notorious for preying on civilians, and would later become wanted for killing six Pros and injuring four others. One of the main reasons he joined us was to hide from the authorities pursuing him, the other reasons…

* * *

" _I came here to kill Pros. That is the goal, no?"_

 _Libra looked back at the towering man with uncertainty. "Well no, the killing is a means to an end. The goal is to fix society."_

" _Don't care. If slaughtering Pros means fixing society, then I'll gladly fix society."_

" _I see…"_

* * *

I nodded to Habrok and made my way over to the coffee pot to have whatever Reina left for the rest of us. While pouring my cup though I felt something slip around my waist, looking down revealed it to be measuring tape, which meant…

"Rorschach, this is like the third time you've taken my measurements." I spun around to look at the elegantly dressed woman.

"Well Akio, unless you want to look like an unwashed bum when we make our debut, I recommend you let me do this so I can finish your outfit."

Rorschach Nightmare, her Quirk, **Living Ink**. If she looks at an image painted with ink she can bring it to life and control it. Her Quirk works best if the image is some sort of animal or creature, due to the fact creating manifestations of inanimate objects are not nearly as effective. Also having too many or creating too many ink beasts in succession causes her to lose control over her creations.

Rorschach Nightmare was a semi-notorious villain from London, using her ink creatures to wreak havoc and help commit in her robberies. Having her join the team was easy considering she and Reina were actually old friends of sorts, apparently they got to know each other when Rorschach visited Japan. I didn't know much outside of that.

"So my outfit is almost done?"

Not looking up from the measuring tape she responded, "Yes, but I just want to make sure it's perfect. I take pride in my work after all."

Other than being a monster making infamous villain, she was also a pretty good tailor. The navy blue tuxedo, black gloves, even the black and white monarch butterfly mask she wore, she had made them all with her own two hands.

Removing the tape, she examined it as she briskly walked away, no doubt going back to her tailoring. Only giving her a second glance I made my way to the couch and sat with our newest members. As much as I didn't like one of the two, I knew we'd have to work together and rely on each other when going up against the Pros.

"Get enough sleep there princess?"

There's the mocking tone and sarcastic smirk I was expecting from him. He leaned back in the old recliner Gorou found awhile back.

Crimson Demolition, his Quirk, **Explosive Blood**. Just like the name says, his blood is highly explosive, and comes in two forms. Wet blood will explode when it and a part of Crimson's body make contact with a solid object, thus Crimson will coat his knuckles in his own blood which results in explosive punches. Dry blood however, act as trigger based explosives; i.e. were he to smear blood along a wall, coat his knuckles with fresh blood and then punch the wall, the explosion will cause his old blood to explode as well. Dry blood will only stay explosive for about twenty minutes however.

I ignored him and sipped on my coffee.

"Come on, I'm serious! You must be exhausted, always doing all that training trying to make yourself worthwhile."

I couldn't help but glare at his devious smirk.

"What's with the look? Don't let me discourage you! Keep at it, I know you'll make a fine meat shield when we fight the Pros!" he laughed.

He's pretty much taunted me since the first day he got here. I guess he just does it because I'm the youngest…and the weakest.

A quiet voice chimed in, "Hey…please don't fight."

We both looked over to see Cleric, a petite dark skinned girl, with worry plastered on her face.

Cleric, her Quirk, **Healing Exchange**. Her Quirk allows anyone she lays both her hands on to be healed of their injuries. However, when she heals someone, she will experience the same pain that person went through. For example, if someone broke their arm and she healed that person, she would feel the pain of having her arm broken, but her arm will not actually break. Too much pain can cause her to pass out.

"Hey, don't worry, we were just chatting," Crimson said trying to ease her worries.

"If you say so…we need to work together and….never mind."

Crimson got up and was immediately at her side, making sure he hadn't upset her. These two had shown up together, and Reina described them as a "package deal". The two were always around each other, I mean I could tell they were a couple, but I wasn't sure for how long or why? They certainly seemed like opposites.

When they first arrived at the hideout Crimson had a confident stance and a look on his face which could only be described as overconfident. Although, he was dressed rather casually. A black tank top exposed scars along his muscly arms, sunglasses covered his red eyes, and his short semi spiked hair was jet-black. Cleric, on the other hand, stood back and behind Crimson, a nervous look on her face as Libra and Reina questioned the two. She wore a dark grey hooded robe; a white eyepatch covered her left eye, leaving her with only one brilliant orange iris exposed. Unlike Crimson, her hair was long and wavy and tied back in a ponytail; it was also a lighter shade of black in comparison to Crimson's.

I leaned back on the couch and relaxed, looking around at the now very 'lived in' hideout. We've come a long way since we first came here, Libra has helped me get into shape, we've been preparing to fight against the Pros, and we've gotten new members. Granted, Libra expected more, but just as Reina said, more will come once we make a name for ourselves. Absentmindedly I looked down at my phone and remembered something.

"It's been ages since Tsuneo tried messaging me…"

* * *

Tsuneo breathed heavy as he finished his hour long running session in the park. Checking his run-time he noticed he had improved, much like in many other aspects of his workouts. His father and mother even took note of how strong he's become.

"One step closer to being a Hero. If my Quirk alone won't get me into the Hero Course, I'll need to be the strongest I can be in both body and mind!" Tsuneo spoke confidently as he psyched himself up for the future. He looked off at the setting sun, wondering how things were with Kimiko and Akio. "Only a week left..… I've got to pass!" Tsuneo decided he'd sprint home as an extra workout. "I need to get in! To prove Kimiko wrong, to make my parents proud, for Akio, and for myself!" Without even realizing it, he had started running across one of the large ponds in the park.

* * *

The day continued on like normal as we all waited for Libra, who was apparently finishing up some plans in his room. Gorou and Cleric were talking in our kitchen, Reina was on her laptop as usual, Rorschach was complaining to Habrok about something, and Crimson was idly browsing channels on the old television we set up in front of the couch, the couch I was sitting on while browsing my phone. We all stopped what we were doing when Libra entered the room. He stood in the center of our living area, looking around at all of us as he started to speak.

"Everyone's here, good. Now then, I know I've been rather quiet these past few weeks, but that is because I've been busy planning our first big mission."

The room was silent as we all waited in anticipation for Libra to continue.

Every word Libra spoke was filled with hope, "This operation will not only begin our path of cleansing this world of false heroes, but it will also stand as a symbol, a symbol to show all other villains out there that the Pros can be broken! Additionally, this plan should also distill fear into the young aspiring heroes, watching the Pros that are supposed to be protecting and educating them get slaughtered should deter most of them from becoming Heroes."

Watching the Pros educating them get slaughtered? It slowly began to click with me where he was going with this.

"In one week the entrance exam for Sanctuary High will be held, and we're going to be there to kill some of the Pros in attendance."

It was Rorschach who spoke up first. "How do I put this gently, hmm….oh yes, this idea will get us all killed," she said in a dead-pan tone, undoubtedly trying to insinuate how idiotic she found the plan.

Surprisingly, Crimson agreed, "Yeah, she's right. Don't get me wrong, blasting those heroes to bloody chunks in front of a bunch of kids sounds hilarious! But even I know not to go kicking a hornet's nest." He stood up to emphasize his explanation to Libra and the rest of us. "It's not just going to be few Pros there, we're probably looking at nearly a dozen and they aren't amateurs. Again, I would love to brawl a bunch of Pros, but even I know going up against a large group of veterans would be suicide."

Habrok immediately jumped in with, "This does not matter. They travel in a pack and we hunt in a pack, so I say we hunt the prey."

Libra raised his hands to silence them. "I understand your concerns, but fear not, for that matter has already been thought of and is currently being taken care of," Libra finished while nodding at Reina.

Reina stepped forward to ease the group's worries. "A very high level informant of mine is gathering the schedule for the exam, this schedule will include times, a list of what Pros are supposed to show up, and it will also include how many students are going to be attending the entrance exam. My informant should arrive to give me this information within the next two days."

Libra continued, "We'll go into the specifics of the plan once we have everything we need, but for now here's the basic idea. Reina's informant will distract most of the Pros and have them lured away from the entrance exam grounds, while we take the students hostage and kill off any Pros that are still there."

Once again we all looked at each other and thought over Libras words. I mulled it over, I mean, we're killing people but at least we're not killing the students. And besides, these heroes knew what they were signing up for when they took on the role of a Pro. Crimson stepped up to retract his earlier statement.

"A dozen Pros would be just plain insane, but just a couple," he punched his fists together, "now that is something I can do, and have fun with!"

"Not very challenging, but I will still gladly enjoy the hunt," Habrok said while nodding in affirmation of the plan.

"If we're going to have to keep a big group of brats under control….looks like I'm going to need more ink." Rorschach went off to her room to see what she had on hand. Libra knew this meant she was on board as well.

Gorou stepped forward. "We're no fighters, but Cleric and I shall provide you with any support you'll need. Isn't that right Cleric?"

Cleric simply nodded with a look of determination on her face.

Lastly, I stood up and locked eyes with Libra, giving him an approving smile. "This is what I've been training for; I'm with you all the way."

Libra simply nodded back at me. For a second it almost seemed like he had an expression of pride under that mask of his.

"Well then everyone be prepared. In one week we'll make our move and begin the downfall of the false heroes."

Everyone in the room began to get excited as they cheered or expressed some form of agreement with Libra's statement. I couldn't help but smile while thinking about the week ahead. It feels like just yesterday that I had shown up here. And while I'm still not the strongest, I have improved and this was my chance to show the rest of the group. This is it, only one week, and then I'll be one of them. A real villain.


	5. The Entrance Exam Pt 1

Chapter 5: The Entrance Exam Pt. 1

I liked coming up to the roof to train. The breeze, the warm sunlight, it was pleasant. The fact the building was compact and practically hidden away in this almost entirely abandoned neighborhood meant no one saw, or cared, about me firing off my Quirk. Gorou often brought me old junk he scrounged up for me to use as target practice; thus the roof had its fair share of scorch marks from my practice sessions. However, today my little training ground had some guests in it.

Reina fanned herself with her hand. "Libra, can we please head in? Fog will be here soon."

"One minute, I need to make sure Akio is in proper form. Go ahead Akio, again," Libra ordered as he stepped back to observe me.

I outstretched my hand and aimed at a pile of junk, feeling the heat of the sun coursing through my veins, manifesting into flames. I concentrated and released my fire all out at once in a steady and large stream of flames, the noise of blazing and crackling fire filled the air as I incinerated all the junk items before me.

Libra nodded with approval. "There's still room for improvement, but this will certainly do for now."

Satisfied with my Quirk based abilities, Libra led Reina and I back inside. Once we entered the basement, we were met with our expected visitor.

"Fog, you're here! Sorry, we were up on the roof," Reina said in surprise.

"It's fine, your brother let me in," he responded with disinterest.

Reina quickly scurried over to the slouching man and gave him an introduction.

"Libra, this is my top informant, Fog of War."

Fog of War, his Quirk, **Fog**. Whenever he breaths out he naturally exhales dense fog, thus he wears a gas mask that filters the air he breaths out.

Fog was dressed in baggy black clothing, with a white scarf wrapped around his neck. The sides of his head were shaved, leaving his long dark grey hair to hang down the side of his face, causing the right half of his face to be covered. The half gas mask he wore filled the room with a shallow breathing, as he looked at us with his clouded left eye.

"So, you're Libra huh," Fog said without much emotion in his voice.

Libra simply answered with a, "Yes, I am."

Fog looked him over, clearly unimpressed. "Hmph. Well Reina, here's what you asked for," he said as he glanced back over to Reina whilst holding up a folder containing papers. "I sure hope you know what you're getting into."

Reina took the folder with delight. "Thanks, you're a life saver Fog. And don't worry, Libra and I know what we're doing….for the most part."

Libra gave a curious glare to the slouched man and asked, "Out of curiosity, how did you get the schedule?"

The man just looked annoyed. "Well it wasn't easy, but my boss has eyes and ears pretty much everywhere in this city. Not going to lie Reina, this folder, plus the man power you requested from us is going to cost you."

"Don't worry, we have it handled," Reina said while looking through the folder. "Oh and don't worry about your payment, I'll get that to you later."

"Right…"

"You're helping us with the mission Fog?" I asked.

He gave a curt nod. "I am, Reina told me the plan. Quite honestly, you're all idiots for attempting this. But I'm getting paid, and the boss okayed it, so I figured I'll tag along. I'm not risking my neck fighting any Heroes though."

"You'll understand soon enough Akio," said Reina with a pat on my shoulder.

Fog began shuffling his way towards the door, turning back slightly to call out to Reina and Libra, "My boss is interested to see how this goes. If this plays out well, our two groups will be working together a lot more in the future." After his remark he exited the basement.

He mentioned his group, I wasn't aware there was another organized group of villains in the city. "Reina, who does Fog of War work for?"

Reina handed the folder to Libra as she answered me, "I believe he works for Masquerade, a group who gather info and help organize villains and other criminals. They fight the Pros with information rather than actual…fighting." She shrugged her shoulders. "But outside of that, I don't know much else about them. Fog is the only one from the group I've actually talked to and met in person."

Libra interrupted, "Well they must have some connections to get this," he said while flipping through the papers in the folder. "Looks like there is supposed to be at least nine Pros to observe the entrance exam, if we can narrow that down to at least five we should be good."

"Well, let's get to work hashing out the details of this plan. Akio, make us some coffee," Reina ordered as she moved to look things over alongside Libra.

I begrudgingly made my way over to the coffee maker. "Why do you always make me make it when Gorou isn't around?"

"Because you're second best at making it," she responded, not turning her attention away from the papers in front of her.

" _I'm starting to regret having Gorou teach me how to make coffee…"_

* * *

The week went by much faster than Tsuneo anticipated. He was already up and frantically getting ready for the entrance exam, making sure to triple check he was prepared for the day ahead. His entire future was riding on what happens today. He quickly moved to the living room to say goodbye to his parents.

"Bye dad!" Tsuneo said quickly as he knelt down to hug his father who was watching TV from the decent comfort of his wheelchair.

"Later kiddo! Good luck out there today, not like you're gonna need it though," he said with a laugh.

Tsuneo grabbed his things and waved to his mother as he headed out the door. "See ya later mom!"

"Good luck sweetie! Your father and I will be rooting for you!"

Tsuneo's mother took hold of her husband's wheelchair handles and pushed him to the front door, where the two watched their son run excitedly down the street.

"There he goes…"

Tsuneo's father looked back at her and chuckled, "What's wrong? Worried he'll get in, or worried he won't get in?"

She sighed with nervousness. "Honestly, I'm not sure which of those prospects scare me more. I'd feel better knowing he inherited your Quirk instead of mine."

"But he didn't, that's the reality." Tsuneo's father looked down the street again to see his son disappearing into the distance. "Your Quirk, my Quirk, it wouldn't matter. Nothing is going to stop that boy from being a Hero."

* * *

Tsuneo stopped and breathed heavy, taking in the sight of the Sanctuary High examinee building. He stepped slowly forward with reverence. " _This is it. Beyond those doors, lies my future as a Hero!"_

"I can't believe you actually showed up…"

Tsuneo turned to see a familiar face. "Oh! Hey Kimi-"

She continued to march straight forward. Giving a side long glare she said, "Don't go home crying if you get hurt or if you don't get accepted."

Watching her walk confidently towards the building, he mustered up his own confidence once more. _"I will get accepted. I have to. Not just for myself, but for everyone who's believed in me and told me to never give up. Akio, my parents, everyone who won't even attempt the exam because they don't think they can, I'll pass this exam for all of them!"_

Tsuneo walked amongst the crowd of fellow attendants, as they filed their way into the entrance hall. Once inside, they saw a large rounded room with long desks and countless seats, which to the thankfulness of Tsuneo were assigned to them. On the desk in front of each seat was a slip of paper. As the last couple of straggling or late students began taking their seats the lights dimmed as a large wall mounted monitor at the front of the room came on. And in front of that large monitor stepped two well-known Pros.

The first to step forward was a woman in white sleeveless ninja like outfit; the hood attached to it was drawn and covered her medium length blonde hair. Piercing silver eyes, refined feminine features, a cute mole under the corner of her left eye. This was indeed, the Graceful yet Deadly Hero, Blade Dancer.

"All of you, settle down! Let's get this thing started," she commanded with a razor sharp stare at the crowd.

Everyone in the room became dead silent, waiting to see if anyone would tempt fate and defy her. Seeing that no one did, the man next to her stepped up alongside her into the light. One look at him and you would instantly recognize the figure. The red suit with a black under shirt held tight by a simple red tie, his robot-like metallic skin. Most curious of all was his head, his neck and sides of his head were robotic and metallic, but from his chin to the top of his head was instead a rounded dark black screen. A screen that soon had a simple red smiley face on it.

"Greetings aspiring Heroes! I hope you're ready to give it your all today!" he shouted in an enthusiastic synthesized voice.

The room was still silent and nervous on account of Blade Dancer. Not picking up on that fact, the robot-like man suddenly jumped up on the front desk and shouted, "Come on! Get pumped up! It's time for some action!" he pumped his fist in the air not once, but countless times, so fast that his arm was a blur.

"Yeah, that's definitely the Fast-paced Action Hero, Mr. Action," Tsuneo said under his breath while watching Blade Dancer bring Action down from the desk.

Mr. Action coughed as he turned to address the crowd once more, "Anyway, once again, welcome aspiring Heroes!"

Blade Dancer followed up, "As you all know, today you will be put through Sanctuary High's practical entrance exam." The screen behind the two lit up, displaying a city constructed in a circular fashion, divided up into three sections. "As you can see, we've divided the training ground into three separate areas; there will be thirty-five of you in each area. We've done this to help further prevent friends from ending up together. And if you'll look at the paper in front of you it will list which area you shall be in."

Tsuneo lifted the paper in front of him to examine where he'd be taking his exam. " _Section C."_ He looked down and to the left where Kimiko sat; over her shoulder he could spy on her paper 'Section C'. " _Great…Kimiko and I are in the same area…"_ he dreaded.

Mr. Action struck a pointing pose as he exclaimed, "Now, let's talk about how you'll be passing this practical exam!" The screen behind them changed, now showing three columns, orange, green, and blue. "In order to pass, you must earn points within these three categories!" Above the orange column it said _**Battle**_ , above the green, _**Rescue**_ , and lastly above the blue, _**Safety**_. Mr. Action struck another pose. "As you may know, some Hero Courses out there are entirely based on a person's combat effectiveness using their Quirk!"

Blade Dancer decided to take over the explanation, "But some schools handle this differently. Our school may not be one of the top rated in the country, but we're still exceptional here in our own city and the surrounding area." She paced as she continued, "Our school is not expected to pump out power house Pro Heroes like some schools out there, and so we focus on enrolling students with combat Quirks, as well as enrolling students with Quirks that might not be combat orientated but can still prove useful as a Hero."

Tsuneo beamed at the sound of that. Now he knew for certain he'd have a shot to get in.

"And that's why we have safety and rescue points!" shouted Mr. Action, an image of red pixelated fireworks flashed on his screen face before returning to a happy red smiling face.

"I shall now explain how you will be earning these points, so pay attention! I'd hate to have to repeat myself," Blade Dancer said with an underlying viciousness.

Once again, silence and attentive listening.

"Now then," the green and blue column on the screen disappeared, being replaced by images of robots with numbers above their heads, "the first and most direct way to earn points is to either destroy or deactivate robots that will fill in for the role of 'villains'. Use your Quirk in any way you want, as long as it destroys or deactivates them, you'll get points."

"They come in three different sizes! Small bots are 50 points, medium are 100, and the large ones are 200!" Mr. Action said while punching the air excitedly.

The column on screen changed to green, and the robot images were replaced by blank white human dummies.

"If you think your Quirk is better suited for saving people, we've got dummies in dangerous situations and areas within the training grounds. All you have to do is take a dummy and drop it off at one of the many 'safety zones'," she said while pointing to a green square on the city map. "For each dummy you drop off in a safety zone, you will earn 150 points."

"WARNING!" Mr. Action's helmet flashed with a red exclamation point, "If the dummy you're escorting is damaged or destroyed, you will be docked 150 points!"

The screen changed yet again, now showing the blue column with an image of a ticking bomb next to it.

"Lastly, you can earn safety points by disabling or disposing of these dummy bombs littered around the city. If you choose to dispose of them, much like the dummies you can drop them off in 'bomb disposal areas' that we've set up. Obviously none of these bombs are real so don't worry about setting them off."

"You won't blow up, but you will be docked points if you do something that would set off a real bomb," Mr. Action explained.

"Anyway, any questions so far?" Blade Dancer asked with a raised brow to the crowd.

Surprisingly one brave hand rose up among the students.

"Yes?"

Tsuneo turned back to see a pale boy with fluffy hair white as snow, two spikes of hair poked upward (almost like dog ears) and the tips were highlighted jet-black. He had a cocky smile and his dark eyes were filled with ferociousness. Leaning back in his chair he asked, "So, are we allowed to hurt the other applicants? Like, say I see someone with a dummy and I steal it from em, is that kind of stuff allowed?"

If stares could kill, this kid would be dead ten times over. Blade Dancer responded with a restrained fury, "No. If anyone of you use your Quirks to harm your fellow applicants, you will be kicked out of here. By me personally."

The white haired boy nodded with a roll of his eyes. "Right, gotcha."

"I also must address this. There is no set amount of points you must reach, and you don't have to get points in each category in order to pass, but as you may have noticed, there are 105 of you here-"

A young sounding voice cut in, "There's only room for 40 students on the Hero Course this year, which means most of us are going to fail."

Almost everyone looked at the source of the voice, which was a girl sitting near the front, who was a little shorter than most in the group. She had forest green hair done up in twin tails, her soft light purple eyes and child-like appearance didn't match her harsh tone at all.

Blade Dancer nodded sternly. "She's correct. The harsh truth is that this year we only have room for 40 first year students on the Hero Course for two classes, which means if you want to be in the course, you'll need to earn enough points to rank yourself in the top forty. Of course, much like other schools, we offer other departments if you fail but are dead-set on going to Sanctuary High."

Mr. Action back flipped as he pointed at the crowd. "It's unfortunate, but that is the reality of the situation! So if you want a spot on the Hero Course," he raised his fist in the air triumphantly, "get out there and earn as many points as possible!"

And with that, the crowd all filed out of the building and made their way to the buses that would take them to the fake city used for the entrance exam. The two Pros lagged behind the crowd.

"Keep your eyes peeled Action, I've got a bad feeling about today…" Blade Dancer said with a troubled tone.

A large red eye flashed on Mr. Action's face screen. "Eyes peeled? You got it!" he affirmed with an extended arm baring a thumbs up. But his hand retracted as a red question mark bounced on his screen. "Wait, why though?"

"I got a message from Mother Nature, she said something big is happening on the other side of town, a lot of staff who were supposed to be at the exam today have to go deal with it."

Mr. Action rapidly waved a hand side to side. "Not to worry friend! I'm sure those villain's shenanigans will not encroach on the testing grounds, we're going to be quite out of the way from the commotion you speak of."

"True, but I can't help but be on edge."

* * *

The bus ride passed by quickly for some and slowly for others. Tsuneo was a mix of excitement and anxiousness, unsure of whether or not he wanted to be at the testing grounds as soon as possible or if he wanted to process things a bit longer. After all, he was going up against some tough applicants. Kimiko sat gracefully, mentally preparing herself for what she undoubtedly planned to be a quick and decisive test of her skills. Tsuneo also noticed the white haired boy from earlier was also a part of their group. It was easy to spot him because he was the only person napping, rather than prepping in some way.

The bus came to halt outside the large circular wall of the fake city that would serve as the testing grounds for Tsuneo, Kimiko, and all the other potential Heroes. Mr. Action stood at a large opening gate which was labeled "Section C".

"Alright, examinees, this is it! Get in there and earn those points!" he pointed forward like a commander leading his troops.

"Wait, um I'm sorry but, what exactly is our time limit for the test?" a girl asked.

Countless red numbers flashed and zoomed around on Action's screen. "Time? Hell if I know! There's no time to be asking about time! The time limit has already started ticking down! It's time to go!" he yelled while rapidly pointing at the open gate.

With Action still shouting, the examinees all began running at their own pace into the training grounds. Tsuneo could overhear a boy and girl talking as they ran.

"Mr. Action is a genius!" the boy proclaimed, "he didn't tell us the time limit so that we could focus solely on the task at hand and not distract ourselves by worrying about how much time we have!"

"You think so?" the girl asked in return.

The two looked back to see Mr. Action checking some sort of schedule sheet while looking at his watch.

The boy's enthusiasm waned, "Or…at least… I'm pretty sure that was his intent."

Tsuneo and Kimiko ran alongside each other, quickly exchanging a shared glance of contention, before both of their eyes focused on the white haired boy from earlier now running on all fours and making it to the front of the group. For a mere moment of comradeship, they were both confused by what they had just seen.

* * *

Mr. Action met up with Blade Dancer at the central observation building located at the center of the three sections. The two entered the small and simple building to meet up with what few Pros could actually attend the examination.

"Oh dear, don't tell me this is it!" Mr. Action shouted as he placed both his hands on his cheeks, his smiling facing changing to one of shock.

"Afraid so," responded the large burly Pro Hero known as Battering Ram.

The other attendant leaned back in a swivel chair as he watched the monitors hooked up to the cameras littered around the training grounds. "Shame everyone else had to go deal with whatever's happening on the other side of town, sitting back and watching these kids is a breeze in comparison." Since the monitors were the main source of light in the dark room it resulted in his round glasses giving off an ominous shine as he turned to address the three. "Or will it?"

"The hell you talking about doc?" Battering Ram asked.

The doctor turned back to observe the examinees. "Nothing, just thinking is all."

Mr. Action's simple face turned to one displaying curiosity. "Thinking about what? Come, share your thoughts doctor!"

The man rubbed his scruffy goatee as he gathered his thoughts. "It's probably just me overthinking things, but it's an odd coincidence that some big group of unnamed street criminals decided today of all days to work together." He pulled out his cellphone, scrolling through live news footage. "And what they're doing is also curious; setting fires, bomb threats, robberies. Not to mention, while these are all happening relatively in the same area, the specific locations are quite random; in the streets, convenience stores, office buildings. Their crimes and locations are all random and the group itself isn't entirely unified."

"Maybe some villain has a Quirk that they're using to make lesser criminals do random violent things?" Mr. Action suggested with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Maybe," Blade Dancer said before turning back to the doctor, "or maybe this is just a distraction for something else, right Doctor Madhouse?"

He stared at her grimly for a long moment, only for him to cut through the silence with a laugh, "Who knows?" he shrugged, "like I said, I was just overthinking things!" he finished with a big grin. But Blade Dancer knew him a little better than the other two in the room, and she knew that he was feeling the same thing she was. Uneasiness that something bad was going to happen.

* * *

Tsuneo managed to rack up a good portion of points by saving dummies and deactivating bombs. He saved a few hanging out windows, and saved a few that were trapped under debris in the streets. He earned the safety points by saving two dummies tied to two bombs, by delivering the dummies and the bombs to their respective zones, he managed to net himself some good points early on. Seeing two medium sized robots stomping down the street, he ducked into a nearby ally while gathering his thoughts.

" _Alright, as long as I can keep quickly racking up rescue and safety points I should be able to pass! Thankfully I have the choice to avoid these robots."_ Moving towards a park like area, he spotted two dummies stranded on a large stone in the middle of a pond. _"Perfect, my Quirk was made for situations like this!"_ Quickly sprinting out onto the water, feeling solid as any ground, he stumbled in surprise when two large water tendrils rose from the pond and cradled the dummies quickly back to land.

"What the?" Looking back he saw just who he was expecting.

Kimiko stood with her arms crossed, a self-satisfied smile on her face. "What's the matter Ikeda? You need help too?" she said smugly. Another tendril of water appeared and wrapped itself around Tsuneo's waist, quickly tossing him to the other side of the pond. Landing with a thud, Tsuneo slowly got back on his feet, trying to stay positive.

"Well, that could've been worse…"

Things suddenly got worse when Tsuneo heard a mechanical creaking behind him. Looking back, a robot menacingly stood over him, its robotic grappling hand clenched and going in for a punch.

" _Oh crap!"_ Tsuneo thought as he flinched.

But instead of getting knocked back by a mechanical fist, the sound of metal on metal greeted his ears. Opening his eyes he saw a girl using her arms to block the robot's attack.

"Deactivate it!" she shouted. "There's a switch somewhere on the back!"

Snapping out of his confusion, Tsuneo did as he was told and quickly scurried to the back of the distracted robot, spying an obvious enough switch on its upper back. Using his upper body strength, Tsuneo climbed and held onto the shaking robot for dear life, thankfully managing to flip the switch whilst falling back and onto the hard ground. A hand reached out to him.

"Nice teamwork! You okay?" the girl asked with slight concern.

Tsuneo took the girls hand, pulling himself up and replying, "Yeah, I'm good. Thanks for the help by the way."

"No problem! I noticed you didn't see that 'villain' was coming up behind you, so I decided to do what any Hero would and help you out."

Tsuneo examined the girl once again. She had a fairly muscular body, but her face seemed to have a soft caring expression to it, especially considering her sweet pink eyes which matched her wild shoulder length pink hair.

"Anyway, my name is Hisa Mamoru, nice to meet you!" she smiled as she held up and flexed a muscled arm while placing a hand on her hip, winking at Tsuneo.

Hisa Mamoru, her Quirk, **Shield Arms**. Her Quirk allows her to grow/change her arms into a variety of shields, such as; bucklers, kite shields, tower shields, heater shields, riot shields, etc. While her shields protect her from damage, they don't last forever and she will eventually start to feel the pain of having her shields damaged.

"I'm Tsuneo Ikeda."

"Well Ikeda, what do you say we work together a bit longer?"

Tsuneo smiled, "I'd like that."

The two continued to watch each other's backs as they continued to rescue dummies and dispose of fake bombs. Eventually coming across a four-way street crossing area littered with destroyed robots. The pale skinned white haired boy from earlier hopping down from one of the destroyed bots looked at the duo with a prideful smile.

"If you were looking to take down some bots around here for points you're too late, I already slaughtered 'em all!"

"Wow, that's actually pretty impressive," Tsuneo couldn't help but comment with admiration for his strength.

"Should you really be using a word like 'slaughtered' to describe fake villains that we'd otherwise be capturing?" Hisa commented.

"Pfft whatever, the details don't matter for someone like me!"

"Someone like you?" she asked with an unimpressed look.

"You're looking at Kenichi Kuroyoru, and I'm gonna be first place in points by the end of this!"

Kenichi Kuroyoru, his Quirk, **Lycanthrope**. His Quirk allows him to gain the abilities of a werewolf, such as enhanced speed and strength, whilst also growing long claws and sharp teeth. It is also significantly stronger at night, and fluctuates based on the phase of the moon. He grows stronger during a first quarter moon and waxing moons. Grows weaker during a last quarter moon and waning moons. And is strongest during a full moon, but is weakest during a new moon.

"Anyway, what are you two small fry doing togeth-" he suddenly stopped as his head perked up. The boy began smelling the air. "What's with this smoke smell?"

"Smoke?" Hisa echoed.

"Well I mean, someone around here probably has a fire Quirk, right?" Tsuneo suggested.

Kenichi sniffed the air once more. "No, there's way too much for it to be someone just firing off their Quirk. Something's burning."

Hisa had noticed it first. "Look over there!"

The two boys turned back to see large billowing clouds of black smoke rising from the direction of the central observation building.

* * *

"Only about six minutes left until times up! These kids sure have been pushing for those points!" Action announced while looking at his watch.

Doctor Madhouse leaned back in his swivel chair. "Well that's to be expected. You tell someone something that they want is limited, and they'll fight extra hard for it."

"It's a shame that even though some of them are giving it their all, they still won't gain admittance," Blade Dancer uttered.

The doctor shook his head with a light chuckle. "Yeah, it sucks, but we can't just take every starry eyed kid that walks in can we?" He laced his hands together and placed them behind his head, eyes closing in relaxation. "More importantly, I'm just glad no one's gotten too hurt so far, makes mine and Nurse Mamba's jobs easier."

"What the Hell!?" Battering Ram shouted.

Everyone's attention was now aimed at the monitors.

"Who's that in Section C!?"

The four observed a masked figure spewing fire from an outstretched hand, lighting anything he could ablaze.

"What's going on in Section A?" Doctor Madhouse inquired while pointing to another monitor.

The streets were quickly becoming filled with a dense fog, soon rendering most of the cameras pointless due to their lack of visuals in the dense cloud. Their attention then focused on a monitor connected to Section B, where a masked man in a white coat walked right up to the camera and stared at the four through the screen, announcing, "My name is Libra."

"The cameras aren't that obvious, which means he knows where they are," Doctor Madhouse stated before Libra continued.

"We are The Syndicate, my associates and I are here for one simple reason. To kill all of you," the masked figure stated coldly while pointing directly at the camera. "I'll make this short. You have two choices, stay in there and hide while we slaughter the examinees, or come out here and sacrifice yourselves. Pick the latter option, and we shall spare the children. Oh, and if you decide to try and stop us, we'll kill you, AND the children. You have two minutes to come out and surrender before we start killing the kids." And with that, the figure walked slowly out of view.

Before any of the four Pros could utter a word, all the lights within the central observation building went out abruptly. Soon the red emergency lights were the only things giving the room some visibility. That and Action's helmet, now making a face of shock.

"What happened!?" Action asked while looking around.

"Either this is the work of a villain's Quirk, or someone cut the power from the maintenance tunnel beneath the building," Doctor Madhouse explained while looking around with slight concern.

"Can we still open the gates?!" Blade Dancer asked quickly in concern.

"No, not without the power on," the doctor replied.

Blade Dancer then sprinted for the exit.

"What are you doing?" Battering Ram questioned.

"What do you think? We need to save the children!" she shouted while stopping to address the other three.

"What, so you're saying we should sacrifice ourselves?" Battering Ram answered back with bafflement.

"Of course not, I don't believe for a second that villain will keep his word. Our best choice is to split up and try to rescue them. I'll head to Section A, Action you head to B, Ram-"

"Section C, I got it," the large man finished her order.

Blade Dancer nodded before turning to address the doctor, "Madhouse, we'll send the kids back here, you need to get them out through the emergency exit tunnel."

The man readjusted his glasses and nodded casually. "Got it. While you're gone I'll call for backup. But considering the mess all those no-name thugs have been causing in town, they may take a bit to get here."

"We can't waste another second, let's move out!" Blade Dancer commanded.

"Right!" shouted Action and Ram in response.

As the three sprinted off to the exits, Madhouse pulled out his phone to message the Pros and the police. Sighing, "And here I thought today would be easy…"

* * *

I continued to spray steady streams of fire from my hand, lighting the buildings and the aesthetic plants ablaze. And more importantly, I was cutting off the direct pathways to the central observation building. Thankfully most of the examinees started to run away from me, a few tried to be brave and stop me, but they too ran after my flames burned hellishly hot a mere few inches away from their bodies. _"Let's just hope this all goes according to plan."_

* * *

 **Last night**

We all sat or stood around as Libra stood in front of a bulletin board filled with papers and maps.

"Welcome everyone, to the first official meeting of The Syndicate."

"The Syndicate?" Habrok said in an uncertain manner.

"Yes, that is what we shall call our group from today forward. It is a fitting name, no?" Libra responded in a matter of fact tone.

"Ha! What's the matter Habrok, don't understand what that word means?" Crimson taunted.

"No, it just doesn't sound like a name that strikes fear into the hearts of those who would stand against our strength," Habrok stated with pride.

Crimson laughed, before quietly leaning over to Cleric, whispering in a low voice, "Hey, so what is a syndicate exactly?"

Instead it was Rorschach who answered, "A syndicate is a group of individuals or organizations that work together for a common goal or interest. I think that name suits us."

Libra hid a smile beneath his mask. "Precisely, but the name will not just work solely for us. This is going to be a villain syndicate. I'm hoping after some time we could reach out to other villain groups and perhaps all collaborate together," he explained while almost exclusively looking at Fog.

Fog's completely emotionless face did not change. "Adorable, he's like a little kid getting all excited."

Libra glared, but managed to hold back any angry remarks he had, and instead re-focused on the mission ahead.

"Let's go over the plan one last time." Libra pointed at a staff sheet nailed to the board. "There is scheduled to be nine Pros overseeing the exam to judge the examinees. Blade Dancer and Doctor Madhouse are setting things up, so we can't do anything about their attendance. However, the other Pros are set to show up later, so our friends from Masquerade are going to orchestrate a distraction to keep most of the Pros busy elsewhere."

Fog interjected, "Quite a few of the local street rats owe us favors, so they're going to be spreading out across town and causing as much trouble as they can to keep the Pros busy. Although, a few Pros will undoubtedly make it to the exam."

"That's what we're counting on. We want a few there so we can send a message, but not so many that we're outclassed. Thankfully, Fog of War's fog and Akio's fire will help sow chaos and confusion, and may result in the Pros thinking they're outnumbered."

"Will there be any regular security?" Gorou asked.

"Nope. Apparently they used to, but since the test doesn't last too long and because of an almost entirely clean record of the entrance exam going off without incident, they decided that the Pros that attend as judges are good enough security."  
Another question popped up from Habrok, "And how will we be entering and exiting this battlefield?"

"That leads me to the next part of the plan." Libra next pointed to a map of the fake city used for the exam, it detailed not only the city but the surrounding area as well. "Turns out there are two entrances to the training ground from the outside. One is the emergency exit tunnel connected to a manhole in a nearby park." He moved his finger to the opposite side of the fake city. "The other entrance is a bit of a trek, but one of the city's sewer tunnels connects to the maintenance tunnel beneath the training ground, and that tunnel opens up to a few manholes within each section of the grounds. And! To make things even better, I believe we can sabotage the generators to cut the power to the observation building."

Libra spun around to face the group, tapping his finger on the maintenance tunnel.

"This will be our entrance and exit. We'll split up and each cover a section."

Cleric nervously raised a question, "But what about…..what about the kids?"

"Ah yes, Rorschach has that covered, correct?" Libra asked to the masked woman.

"Indeed, my pets will keep them in check. I've taken the liberty to prepare some ink paintings ahead of time, they're quite large you see."

"Ah so that's what you've been working on non-stop these past few nights," Gorou stated.

"Correct, I've set them up on three long large rolls of paper, the creatures should each be the size of a bus once they manifest. The rolls are burdensome to carry, but I'll manage until I give them life."

Libra continued to piece the plan together, "Rorschach, you'll be heading to Section A with Fog of War. Once he's unleashed his fog, you will unleash your creatures, one for each section. Have them guard the gates, just in case the brats try to escape that way."

"It shall be done," Rorschach bowed.

"Got it," Fog simply stated.

"Akio, you'll be in Section C using your fire to cut off their escape routes, while Habrok will wait nearby to take out anyone with a flight Quirk trying to escape, in addition to taking out any Pros that come your way," Libra instructed while pointing to the two of us.

Habrok clasped a hand on my shoulder and gave it a shake. "Looks like it's time for us to go on a hunt, Akio! You'll bait out the prey, and I'll go in for the kill!"

I wasn't sure why, but I couldn't help but smile and return his excitement, "Sounds like a plan."

"Lastly, Crimson, Cleric, you two will be with me in Section B."

"You got it boss man, just don't get upset if I end up stealing your kill!" Crimson laughed.

Cleric bowed her head. "I'll keep the two of you patched up."

"What are we to do Libra?" Gorou inquired, shoving a thumb out at Reina.

"You two will cut the power in the maintenance tunnel, afterwards you'll secure our escape route."

Gorou rolled his eyes. "Oh boy, some bonding time with my dear sibling."

Reina wrapped an arm around his neck and pulled him close. "I look forward to it! We'll get the job done Li," she finished with a lazy smile while her brother scowled.

"Alright everyone, remember, let's try to make this quick and clean. We get in, and then we kill the Pros there," Libra stated to assure we all understood. "This is the first step to cleansing society and restoring things to a proper balance, so get some rest and be ready, we leave at dawn."

Everyone dispersed, no doubt prepping themselves for tomorrow.

"Akio," Rorschach called out to me.

Turning to face her, I could see she had some folded clothes outstretched to me.

"Well it took a little time my boy, but it's finally ready. An outfit that is suited for you and your Quirk. Oh, and the mask is something I whipped up with the time I had to spare."

I accepted the bundle of clothing and examined the mask placed atop it. A simplistic mask just like Libra's, it was a dark shade of yellow with a basic design of a black sun in the center. "Thanks Rorschach."

"Not a problem dear. Although you and your Quirk are undoubtedly registered, meaning once people figure out your fire only works in sunlight, they'll figure out who you are. But until that time, there's no need to give away such information for free, hence the mask. Even though it may be temporary, I hope it works well for you."

"Yeah, it'll work perfectly." I held it up and examined it, "Actually, my mom's was kind of similar to this in terms of colors."

Rorschach chuckled in self-satisfaction, "That was the idea, the son carrying on the mother's legacy, so to speak. Speaking of Solar Fury, what name will you go by?" Rorschach asked whilst stroking her chin inquisitively.

"She's right, wouldn't be a smart idea to call you Akio, while out on the mission," agreed Libra, who was still examining the bulletin board.

I had to think about that question. I could always just use mom's name, but that would make it obvious who I was. No, I'd need a new name, a name that would become even more famous than my mother's, one I could call my own. After thinking for another moment or two I had come to a decision.

"Helios. Helios, will be my codename."

"Helios, the son of Solar Fury…I like it!" Rorschach enthused with a snap of her fingers.

"It'll do," Libra approved.

 **The next morning**

The morning of the operation I awoke early and donned my new outfit. I put on my new dark jeans, slipping on some average black and white running shoes. Next came the long sleeveless black coat, tattered at the end and covered in burn marks, a simple dark yellow undershirt came along with it. With the mask on, I was ready.

After a long trek through the sewers, and having Crimson blow down a door, we made our way through the maintenance tunnel. Soon enough, we all went our separate ways, each heading off to their own designated section. "Good luck everyone," Libra called out one final time before we all split up.

Habrok and I walked in silence for the most part, until he asked, "Are you steeled for the hunt ahead Akio? We are not hunting just any animal."

" _I wasn't aware we were hunting animals at all…"_ I thought absentmindedly.

"No, we are hunting sheep dogs."

"Sheep dogs?" I couldn't help but repeat questioningly.

He continued as we neared the ladder to the manhole. "Yes, dogs that serve to protect the mindless docile sheep of society, eager to earn a bone from their masters. So eager in fact that they'll fight tooth and nail to ward off predators, just to earn some meaningless praise." Habrok climbed the ladder, calling back to me, "I'll take to the skies and wait for the Pros to show themselves, you know what to do?"

"Of course."

"Good. One of Rorschach's beast will be here soon enough to round up the welps so we can focus on the dogs."

Going topside shortly after Habrok, I could hear the distant sound of examinee's doing whatever trials they needed to undertake in order to get into the Hero Course. Funny, if things went a little differently or if I stayed content with my meaningless path, I very well could have ended up here. Now that I think about it, Kimiko might even be here…..probably not.

I took a breath, followed by a calming exhale. "Alright, let's do this." At those words, I let loose my first stream of fire.

* * *

 **Present**

I continued to burn everything in my sight. Soon enough I had realized my task of cutting off the pathways to the observation building had been completed, and yet I still continued to burn. The warmth on my skin, the way the fire billowed, and the satisfying display of watching the flames consume whatever they could latch onto and burn. I think I'm starting to understand why my mom liked burning things.

"Found it!"

I spun around in surprise, worried it might have been a Pro. But no, I turned to see a pale boy with fluffy white hair, a look of ferocity on his face.

"So, you're the source of these fires? Who the Hell are you!?" the boy demanded to know.

Odd, he doesn't seem scared. Either he's confident…or he's got a good Quirk. I desperately hoped it was the first possibility. Before I could do anything, two more examinees joined his side. I had nearly lost my composure when I saw who one of those examinees was.

The pink haired girl huffed, "How do you…run…so damn fast…"

"What'd you find?" the all too familiar boy asked.

"Looks like a villain," stated the vicious looking guy, still sizing me up.

The other two seemed to step back, shocked looks on their faces. Little did they know that I had a similar face under my mask.

" _Tsuneo, why the hell are you here?!"_

Hurting a Pro, no problem. Hurting one of the examinees, I'd do it if I had to. Tsuneo? Hero or not, how could I hurt one of the only people who'd stuck by me all these years. Things just got more complicated…


	6. The Entrance Exam Pt 2

Chapter 6: The Entrance Exam Pt. 2

We all stood still and continued to stare back at one another, each of us waiting for someone to make the first move. My hand caught fire as I raised it up, I decided I'd be the first one to attack. Maybe I can scare them off like I did the others. But the pale guy seemed to have the same idea. The attacking part that is. He was most certainly not interested in just scaring me off.

"Looks like I get to show off my skills as a Hero on a real life villain!" he roared while dodging my first spray of flames. His dark nails had grown long and sharp, his teeth following suit. He slashed at me, going for my chest, the only way I could keep him away was to blast a little fire his way. But every time I tried to get him to back off, he'd just dodge and keep coming at me. I had no choice, I'd need to use what Libra taught me in combination with my Quirk if I was going to get rid of him.

"You know for a villain, you sure are a coward!" he taunted while rushing forward. This was my chance.

The way he was reeling his right arm back made it obvious he had intended to swipe at me with his claws, I waited for him to get in close before I darted left under his messy swipe at me, quickly turning back to deliver a swift kick to his back. Watching him stumble forward, I raised my hand and let loose a short burst of fire, only for someone to get in the way. It was that pink haired girl, she held her arms together, a large circular metal shield forming on them; shielding the two from my fire.

"Agh!" she grunted, clearly some of my flames touched her before she could form her shield.

"I didn't need your help!" Kenichi growled at her.

"Wow, that's what you have to say!? No, 'hey thanks for saving me from third degree burns'."

I started weighing my options. Obviously I could just fire off a large blast of flames and roast them, but I wasn't planning on killing any examinees unless I absolutely had to. I thought perhaps I could keep up the attack and hopefully not harm them too bad.

"Who are you!?"

I whipped around when I heard that voice. Tsuneo, was now standing closer to me, an expression of worry buried behind forced bravery.

"Why are you here? Who are you?" he asked again, his stance still defensive.

I decided to answer. Call it wishful thinking, but I figured maybe it'd get them to calm down or back off, anything to prevent me or Habrok from having to hurt them. "I'm Helios, my friends and I are here to kill the Pros. Just stand down and don't try anything, and we won't have to hurt you."

"To Hell with that!"

The white haired guy was once again running at me, baring his fangs in anger.

" _Damn it..."_

* * *

Blade Dancer ran faster than she ever had, driven by the fact that all those kids lives were in her hands. She was a Hero who specialized in taking down villains stealthily, or providing back up for other Pros, she wasn't used to dealing with hectic situations like this. But nonetheless, she didn't have choice; there was no time and most certainly not enough Pros to handle this situation.

"Damn, this fog is too thick, I can barely see…"

"Come looking for the children miss Pro?" a feminine voice asked mockingly.

Blade Dancer struck a defensive pose as she faced the direction of the voice. Emerging from the fog was a woman in a navy blue tuxedo, her face hidden behind a black and white monarch butterfly mask. The masked woman leaned idly on her black cane, which had an onyx cobra with ruby eyes adorning the top.

"Where are the examinees, and who are you!?" Blade Dancer demanded to know.

"Me? You haven't heard of me?" she asked in an exaggerated hurt voice. "I am Rorschach Nightmare, and as for the children," she chuckled, "who knows? Ah, but perhaps you can help me, you see I'm looking for someone too." She motioned her hand at the fog around her as she looked around. "It seems my escort has run off somewhere, perhaps you've seen-"

Rorschach stopped there as she swiftly slid to the right to avoid a large blade that had suddenly thrust itself toward her right shoulder. Stepping back, she examined Blade Dancer. Most of her right arm had become a sharp silver blade, from her elbow down to her fingers, which had all molded together forming the incredibly sharp tip of her blade arm.

Blade Dancer, her Quirk, **Blade Appendages**. Her arms and legs can transform into sharp metallic blades, whether that be turning her fingers into short stabbing knives or her arm into one long blade. Since her Quirk is so deadly, she always aims for non-vital areas of the body to ensure she doesn't accidently kill someone. She's also specializes in stealthy non-lethal takedowns.

Not letting up the attack, Blade Dancer quickly brought her leg around for a kick, planning to use her now bladed foot to stab Rorschach in the thigh. Once more the villainous woman managed to dodge a mere second from impact, this time however, Rorschach drew the concealed sword from within her cane, using it to block the anticipated follow up attack from Blade Dancer's deadly arm. Blade Dancer hopped back, the blade on her foot retracting through the torn cloth of her outfit. Raising her deadly arm, she commanded, "I'd hate to have to question you in the hospital, why not give up now and make this easy on all of us."

Rorschach gracefully spun her cane sword before sliding it back into its hilt as she responded, "Your Quirk is certainly more deadly than most Pros I've seen, but I think you're being awfully overconfident my dear. After all this little game has just begun and-oh!"

Blade Dancer noticed that Rorschach had perked up and looked past her. Cautiously looking back, Blade soon found out why. She was face to face with a giant ink man, towering over the two, it had to be at least the size of a two-story house.

"There's my escort!" She pointed her cane at the large beast, "About time! This riff-raff has been bothering me," she waved her hand as if shooing an annoying pest, "dispose of her."

The large ink giant raised its fist, dripping countless droplets of ink as it came down in an attempt to crush the blade hero. Still some-what surprised, Blade Dancer barely rolled out of the way of the black hand, the missed attack left a large crack in the road. Rorschach gracefully strolled up to the beast, looking at it expectantly. Without words, the creature brought an open hand down to the woman's feet, allowing her to hop on. It then carefully brought her up to its shoulder, where she stood triumphantly perched atop her creation.

Looking down at the angry Pro, Rorschach decided to gloat, "Wonderful isn't he? It took blood, sweat, tears, and ink….well mostly a lot of ink, but the three of them came out wonderfully!" she said while patting the monsters head.

" _Three of them!?"_ Blade Dancer dreaded in her mind.

Rorschach took note of the hero's change in expression. "Oh don't fret over them dear, they're off dealing with the brats scurrying about this place, and more importantly, stopping anyone from getting in or out of here."

Before Blade Dancer could say or do anything, Rorschach commanded her 'pet'.

"Now then, be a dear and crush that hero for me."

Following her command, the beast raised its foot in the air ready to stomp his master's enemy.

* * *

"AHH!" another examinee shouted as he ran from the large black tiger.

Countless examinees had either run away or were behind cover near the Section B gate. A short girl quickly ducked into an ally with two other examinees, one was a tall boy of an average build, with loose semi-long sky blue hair, his calculated eyes shared a similar shade of blue. The other examinee was a dainty girl of average height with short light brown hair, the top half of her face was hidden by a black cloth tied around her head. She was cowering next to the tall boy, who was looking cautiously around the corner of the ally to observe the monstrous tiger.

"What the hell is going on!?" the short girl asked the two.

The boy turned his attention back to the fellow examinees in the ally with him. He looked down upon the green haired girl and commented, "Oh, you're that girl who spoke up back at the entrance hall. I sat far away from you so I figured my eyes were playing tricks on me."

The young lady tilted her head in annoyed confusion.

"You really are short for a highschooler."

"Oh my God, now is not the time for bullshit! What's going on!?"

"Foul mouthed too." He went to quickly peek at the monster again. "We were all just minding our own business when that thing suddenly came out of nowhere and started attacking us. Now it's standing guard in front of the gate."

The girl leaned over cautiously to examine the monstrous dark tiger. "That thing is the size of a bus…"

The green haired girl now looked at the two, a little more calm knowing the beast wasn't actively hunting them. "My name is Toki Wakai by the way."

"Shun Takamoto," he pointed to the girl next to him, "and this is…um…"

The girl looked up at the two (the best she could through her blindfold) and responded nervously, "I'm…Ayame Hikaru."

With one last cautious glance, Toki informed the other two, "Alright, is there any way we can take that thing out?"

Shun shook his head. "Unless your Quirk is super strong, which I doubt it is by the way you're talking, then no there isn't. My Quirk won't help with killing that thing," he pointed to the blindfolded girl, "and apparently she's been using her Quirk so much that it's too weak to hurt that thing."

Toki scratched her head while thinking over their options, then she snapped her fingers with sudden realization, "The emergency exit tunnel! Sanctuary High always has emergency exits in closed off training grounds like this!"

Shun perked up. "Yeah, you're right! It should be in the central observation building right? I saw other kids running that way."

"That's right," Toki confirmed. "If we want to stay safe it'd be best if we made our way to the observation building." Not even waiting for the other two to respond, Toki crouched down and quickly made her way in the direction of the central building.

Shun shook Ayame's shoulder. "Come on, let's keep up with her and get out of here."

Ayame nodded hesitantly.

"Don't worry, we'll be fine, we just got to get to the escape tunnel while the Pros take care of this."

Catching up with Toki, the three students proceeded to stalk the streets, careful to avoid any more creatures or the one who created them. As they approached their destination, they noticed countless buildings had been damaged, the debris piling in the streets.

"What's going on around here?" Toki said to herself as she observed the wreckage of the buildings.

"Someone is over there…" Ayame pointed down the street at a man in a white cloak.

The three crept closer to the man, careful not to be seen.

"Look, it's Mr. Action," Shun whispered while pointing at the approaching Pro.

The hero's metallic body shined in the sunlight as he confidently approached the masked villain. "Evildoer! I'm giving you one chance. Call off your men and surrender."

Libra glared with disgust at the Pro. "Mr. Action. Well paid, famous, acts like a careless idiot, as if just because you're a Pro that there's nothing you can't do and no one you can't save. Heroes like you make me sick!"

Mr. Action raised both his fists and warned, "Backup is on the way, you should save yourself the injuries and surrender."

Libra scoffed, "Backup? We already have our own backup guarding the gates to kill anyone who manages to get in here. Anyone who tries to come in via the air will be in for a surprise as well."

Chalking up all his talk to be overconfidence, Mr. Action rushed forward, being upon the villain in seconds, he let loose a barrage of countless punches in order to end things quickly.

Mr. Action, his Quirk, **Rapid-Fire Punches and Kicks**. Just as the name says, Mr. Action can fire off dozens of punches and or kicks within seconds, sometimes going so fast that his limbs look like mere blurs to the naked eye.

However, Libra had accounted for the Pro's Quirk and did not hesitate to carefully maneuver around him and place a hand on his side. A risky move, if he had needed more than three seconds that is. After the seconds passed, Libra backed away. Action turned to face him, taking a step forward only to realize he felt different, he couldn't feel the speed in his arms and legs like he did a moment ago.

Libra chuckled, "The sad part about being famous is that your secrets are eventually brought to light. You figured I'd back off when you attacked me with all those punches, but I know a glaring fault in your attacks."

Mr. Action stiffened and actually became somewhat nervous.

"Whenever you fire off a large amount of punches or kicks, your body locks up, you can't move during your big attacks. Well, not that it matters now anyway, since you're quirkless for the time being."

Mr. Action raised his fist once more. "Quirk or not, I'll still fight you with every fiber of my being!" he shouted, the simplistic face on his screen changed to one of conviction.

"Pfft, what a typical answer from a false hero like you." Libra put his hands in his pockets. "But I should mention, I won't be the one fighting you," Libra casually nodded with his head, "he is."

Mr. Action turned back only to be met with a clenched fist to the chest, a small explosion causing him to go flying down the road. Crimson Demolition walked forward, clearly upset. "Ah shit! I knew I shoulda used more blood. Guess I got a little too excited."

Libra briskly walked past him, explaining, "You have less than four minutes to deal with him."

Crimson cracked his knuckles while readjusting his dark red hard leather gauntlets, "Only need one, boss."

Libra continued walking as he pulled out a phone, making his way in the direction of the black tiger, calling back, "I'll be checking in on Rorschach's pet. Kill that Pro, grab Cleric, and then catch up with me after you do."

Crimson slowly walked towards his victim, checking to make sure his gauntlets were still in working order. _"Haven't used these babies in a while, glad they still do the trick,"_ Crimson thought. The gauntlets were a gift from Cleric, a gift Crimson has treasured since the day he received them.

* * *

" _Isamu!"_

 _Crimson could hear a voice call out from the front door. Sitting up on the couch, he looked to see his longtime partner in crime enter the room._

" _Claire, you're back later than usual."_

 _She knelt beside the couch, placing a simple box on the table in front of him. "I know, but it's because I was getting you a present!" While Crimson looked at the box with curiosity, she couldn't help but examine his bandaged arms. "You sure you don't want me to just heal you? You know…I don't mind the-"_

 _Crimson cut her off right there, "No. I was reckless, and you shouldn't have to go through unnecessary pain because of my mistakes."_

 _Cleric sighed, "Okay. But, speaking of which, open your present. It'll help mitigate your injuries in the future."_

 _Crimson tore open the box and pulled out two dark red hard leather gauntlets._

" _I had these specially made for you." She held one up to show how it worked. "You see, there are needles on the inside that will inject your arm and draw blood once you press down here on this part of the palm," she explained while pointing to the lower left part of the palm. "Once your blood is drawn, it is funneled into four small tubes," she then pointed to the top hand section of the gauntlet, the design allowing the knuckles to be exposed, "the tubes then drain the blood here onto the top of your hand. So what do you think?"_

 _Trying one on, Crimson got a feel for the gauntlet, admiring the craftsmanship and sturdiness of his new equipment. "It's great! This'll make it so much easier to manage how much blood I use! Thanks Claire."_

 _She smiled contently as he embraced her._

* * *

Crimson held down on the lower left of his palms activating the mechanisms within his gauntlets, which began to draw Crimson's blood that soon streamed down onto his exposed knuckles. Mr. Action slowly pushed himself off the pavement, steadying himself as he prepared to face his new opponent.

* * *

Habrok flew swiftly through the sky, carried by his powerful falcon wings, his piercing gaze observing the grounds below him. Things seemed to be going well, the children were scattering, and Rorschach's beasts were in place. All they needed to do now was kill some Pros and head home. Just as Habrok was about to check in on Akio, he heard the unmistakable sound of a helicopter. Flying a little higher, he then observed the area outside the grounds walls, spotting police on the way. Leading the charge were a couple police helicopters.

Habrok kept his distance as he circled around the helicopters, aiming to take one down quickly. Soaring through the air like a missile, the menacing bird man latched onto the cockpit door, using his strength to tear the door open. The panicking pilot could do little as Habrok extended the talons on his left hand and proceeded to rip into his chest, and once he was thoroughly sure that life left the pilot's body he soared off to repeat the process with the other chopper. Without pilots the helicopters soon lost control and spun out of control into the buildings of the exam grounds. Knowing he didn't have time to waste on small prey, Habrok made his way to the ink beast that was ordered to come to Section C.

Idly flapping next to the lumbering giant ink man, Habrok ordered, "Beast, hear me. I order you to kill any enemies that enter the training grounds, tear their metal birds from the sky!"

The creature made some sort of groaning sound as it obeyed. Rorschach had specifically ordered the Section C beast to obey Habrok, while the Section B beast was set to obey Libra. And thus, the ink giant leaned down to pick up the remains of the large broken robots that still littered the streets, and began throwing them at the new incoming police helicopters. Satisfied with the aerial defense, Habrok made his way back to Akio.

Once again, I was doing my best to evade the wild attacks from the white haired guy. I still didn't have a good handle on how to minimize my flames, but desperately I took aim and tried my best to only let loose enough fire to hurt him a little bit. And it worked! But that only served to anger him even further, and considering I didn't hurt him that badly he was able to launch into an attack immediately. I braced for impact as the boy growled and lunged at me with his flesh ripping claws. However, a dive kick from the sky sent him off course and slamming onto the ground.

"Habrok!"

The hawk man stood tall as he looked at me with crossed arms. "I was hoping you could handle these sheep all on your own Helios."

"Right, I'm sorry…" Wait! No, this was bad! Habrok isn't going to hesitate to kill them. He's going to kill Tsuneo!

The pink haired girl got in front of the still recovering boy, Tsuneo quickly at her side, his fists raised nervously. Without saying a word, Habrok's talons all appeared at once, as he menacingly walked forward to rip apart the examinees. The boy got up and recklessly rushed forward with claws of his own, however the towering falcon man quickly grabbed the boy by the collar. Ignoring the claws digging into his avian forearm Habrok threw the kid hard against the wall of a nearby building.

"Gah!" the boy called out in pain as he slumped against the wall.

"Helios, roast that one while I deal with these two," he simply stated, still focused on the other prey before him.

I looked back at the injured boy who was mumbling in pain, "Damn it…you're lucky it's not night, you bird bastard…"

Ignoring him, I once again faced Habrok and the examinees. The girl created two kite shields on her forearms, as she defiantly said, "Well? What are you waiting for!?"

Habrok laughed heartily, "Ah, forced bravery, the sign of fearful cornered prey."

After saying that, he rushed in and went for her shoulders, most likely in the hopes of cutting her arms to ribbons. Forced bravery or not, the girl didn't hesitate or flinch at Habrok's onslaught, tactfully blocking his attacks with her shields. Tsuneo, the brave fool that he is, went in to try and help, only to have Habrok casually grab his arm and throw him to the side. I quickly rushed over to him, observing the talon cuts on his arm where Habrok had held him in his grip.

"You…" He backed up as he got back on his feet.

" _Damn it you idiot, you're going to get yourself killed if you stay here…"_ I thought still worrying on what to do. Then it dawned on me. Habrok is busy with that girl, he'd probably be upset if he saw me letting someone go so I decided now was my time to warn Tsuneo. "Hey listen…man, this is your last chance. If you want to live, run now!"

He took a breath as the worried expression washed away and was replaced with a more determined one. "No. I'm not running."

" _Damn it! Ok, gotta kick it up a notch."_ Fire roared to life in my palm as I took aim. "Run now, or I'll burn you alive."

I could see him hesitating. "I…"

"AHH!" a female voice cried out.

Funnily enough, both of us looked back in concern. The girl was on the ground shielding her head and chest, but it seemed that Habrok had took advantage of that and dug five of his talons into her undefended side. I watched as he dragged them out, a dark crimson liquid coating them.

* * *

Blade Dancer continued to dodge and weave out of the way of the large ink man's attacks. She kept avoiding the lumbering beast, waiting for an opportunity to do some real damage to the creatures ink body. She got a few good cuts and slashes in, but she knew they'd have to be deeper to actually put a stop to the monster.

"Damn it, I just need a chance to-"

Suddenly, a fairly large black scaled snake had its jaws clenched into the large ink man's shoulder. Rorschach looked back, following the body of the snake led it to connect with the back of an examinee. Two more snakes burst out of the boys back, launching forward to sink their fangs into the monsters wrists, all of them began pulling back in an attempt to topple the creature.

"Little brat! I thought Fog was taking care of you wretched ilk." Turning her attention back to the other foe she saw Blade Dancer was taking the opportunity the boy presented to her and was sprinting forward, no doubt aiming to slash the giant's ankles. Rorschach hurriedly unsheathed her cane sword, stabbed it into her monster, and slid down the beast. Rorschach ran forth and crossed blades with Blade Dancer.

She chuckled at the Pro, "Don't think I can't handle you myself. Obviously someone of my caliber doesn't always require the assistance of hired help." Blade Dancer was quite agile and deadly, but somehow Rorschach was able to keep up with her, using her sword for quick attacks while defending with the sturdy cane hilt.

*swoosh*

Rorschach looked over her shoulder to see a snake rushing through the air right at her. The boy had moved closer, eight decently sized snakes extended out of some part of his back, all of them doing their best to restrain Rorschach's struggling creation. It was a new ninth snake that was rushing towards her. Doing her best to block Blade Dancer's incoming attack with her cane hilt, Rorschach swiftly severed the serpent's head with her blade. A small grunt of pain from the boy was soon followed up by a cry of pain from Rorschach. She quickly reeled back, feeling Blade Dancer's sharp fingers pull out of her shoulder.

Feeling the torn fabric of her tuxedo and the blood coating her shoulder, she shouted, "You'll pay for this! Kill her now!" she commanded the towering ink man.

The ink beast overcome with the desire to obey its master began to pull against the snakes even harder, soon freeing himself from some of their grasps, enough to raise his fist once more and slam down where Blade Dancer was positioned. Blade Dancer moved to dodge but soon found no need to as four snakes barely managed to restrain the arm mid arm. That's all Blade needed, taking the chance to turn her arms into two long blades she made her way to the ankles of the ink man and began slicing fast and fiercely.

The giant fell forward, coating the street in ink as it tried to push itself back up off the ground. "Hold its head up!" the Pro ordered to the examinee, who quickly obliged. She next moved to the creature's neck, clearly exposed thanks to the boy using his snakes to hold the giants head up and in place. Repeating what she did to the ankles, Blade made quick and deep cuts in the beast's neck until it was decapitated. Soon after, the monster's form began to fall apart and was nothing more than a large puddle of ink on the road. Examining her white outfit now covered in patches of ink, she sighed in annoyance but with some relief, thanking the boy, "Thank you for the assistance young man, what's your name?"

He nodded. "Of course ma'am, and my name is Mirou Hon."

Mirou Hon, his Quirk, **Hydra**. Mirou can sprout nine semi-large serpents from his back, controlling them like extra appendages, each of which can regenerate if killed. However among the nine, one is the main head. Should the main head be killed, all heads will be unable to regenerate for a short while.

She looked him over. The fair skinned boy seemed of average height and weight for a boy his age. He had neat black medium length hair that ended just above his shoulders. His yellow snake-like eyes were behind rectangular black rimmed eyeglasses.

"Well Mirou Hon, once again thank you for your assistance, but please leave the villain fighting to the Pros in the future," she lectured the boy.

"I apologize ma'am, but it looked like you could use a hand. Also it would appear that, that villain has made her escape into this dense fog."

Looking around with a sudden realization, Blade Dancer saw that the boy was right. "Blindly running after her in this fog would be foolish, but I have to ask, have you seen the other examinees?"

He nodded. "A girl managed to rally almost everyone together in order to avoid the beast, last I checked they were making their way to the observation building; I gave the monster chase to see if it would go back to its master. I know a Hero in training, an examinee no less, shouldn't go after villains, but I hope you can forgive me ma'am."

Once again sighing with relief, Blade Dancer said, "Good, they're making their way to the emergency exit. As for you young man, stick with me, I'll escort you back to the observation building."

"Understood," he replied, falling in line behind her like a soldier following his commander.

Rorschach, meanwhile, was examining her shoulder. "God damn it! This tux was sewn to perfection! I hope I can fix it…." Sighing she sheathed her cane sword and decided to make her way to the exit. "Libra said my main contribution to the mission were my creations, which means my job here is done. Time to take my leave."

* * *

Mr. Action expertly ducked and weaved his way out of Crimson's attacks, but still couldn't find an opportune moment to strike. Obviously he'd be a lot weaker without his Quirk, but his main concern was not getting hit. Knowing that even one of the villain's punches could blow him to smithereens.

"Come on! You're just delaying the inevitable, so why don't you stand still and let me turn you into a bloody mess!" Crimson shouted, angered yet still smiling like a maniac.

Mr. Action chuckled, "You want me to make this easy for you? And here I thought you might be a threat." Angering Crimson further, Mr. Action not only managed to dodge a right hook but followed it up by delivering a swift kick to his opponent's stomach.

With a look of fury, Crimson backed off, moving to the nearby debris of a broken robot, which he quickly smeared his blood upon. He next punched the broken bot, the explosion sending the debris flying forward. Mr. Action managed to avoid the flying scrap metal fairly unharmed, but soon saw that was not the end of the attack. Crimson was upon the still recovering and quirkless Mr. Action, a wicked grin on his face as his fist collided with the Pro, a loud explosion and cloud of dust following suit.

The three examinees still watched from a distance. "Mr. Action…." The Pro's name slipped from Ayame's lips.

Shun looked worriedly at the other two, "We have to help him!" he urged.

Toki replied with a questioning glare, "How? You said your Quirk isn't combat oriented, hers is too weak to hurt him, and mine will let me avoid his attacks but I won't be able to stop him."

"Um actually…" Ayame quietly got their attention. "My Quirk was too weak to kill that monster, but…I think I can still hurt that guy."

"Really? Perfect, we'll get that guy's attention, you attack when his guard is down," Shun commanded before the frightened examinee or the angered Toki could agree.

"You can't, it's too risky you dumbass! This is a real villain we're dealing with here!" warned Toki.

Shun dug around in his coat pocket, pulling out a small marble which soon began to glow after being within his grasp for a few seconds. "Doesn't matter, Mr. Action's Quirk clearly doesn't work right now and he's fighting a strong opponent. We're helping," he reeled his arm back, "if you want to run, go ahead…no one would blame you."

Before Toki could reply, Shun threw the marble still glowing with a soft white light, and soon after, Shun vanished in a flash of white light.

Shun Takamoto, his Quirk, **Teleport Points**. Shun can touch an object and set it as a point from which he can teleport to. The limitations are quite extensive however. First, living beings cannot be set as teleportation points. Secondly, the object can be no bigger than a piece of furniture, exceptions to this rule could be setting a single brick of a building as a point or the single tile of a floor. Third, only three points can be set at a time. Lastly, the object must be within eyesight in order to teleport.

"Idiot!" Toki quickly motioned for Ayame to follow, "Come on, let's make sure that dumbass doesn't get killed."

Mr. Action slowly rose from the dust, noticing his suit was tattered and covered in burn marks. The pain he was feeling quickly dissipated as he was overcome with hope once he felt his Quirk returning to him. However, before he could get a chance to use it, Crimson once again dealt and explosive punch to the Pro's head. While not nearly as explosive as the last, it still hurt quite bad, unable to think straight he began to stumble back.

Crimson paced forward, cracking his knuckles. "You know, you're the kind of Hero I hate the most. The kind that seems to think they can save everyone!" he finished that sentence with a hard non-explosive punch to Action's head. "Well, where were you when I needed help?" another punch to the Pro's head, causing Action to trip on some rubble and fall onto his hands and knees. "Where were you when she needed help!?" now a hard kick to the Pro's chest. "What, were you off saving people worth your time? People that would earn you some money by saving them? People that would actually be missed if something bad happened to them!? I guess we just didn't matter huh!?" Mr. Action was about to get back up, but the hardest punch yet met with his face, putting him back on the ground. "You didn't save me, and you didn't save her, we had to save ourselves. And yet you and all those other fucking bastards still walk around with your holier than thou attitude." Crimson's knuckles were coated in fresh blood, ready to deal a finishing blow to the Pro.

"Hey!" a voice called out.

Crimson stopped and looked back to see two kids, a short girl with forest green hair, and a tall boy with sky blue hair. He laughed to himself, "Aw look, two little wannabe Pros." Crimson tilted his head back to Action, "I'll be right back, this'll only take a second," Crimson said, now walking menacingly towards the examinees, "trust me."

Seeing the approaching villain, Toki leaned over to Shun and whispered, "I'll keep him busy, you go grab Mr. Action."

Seeing as there was no time to discuss, Shun nodded, "Fine, but you be careful, I'll help as soon as Action is safe."

Toki's eyes flashed as she ran forward to have the villain focus on her, it seemed to have worked as he was now running towards her, fists raised. Shun took the opportunity to toss a marble and teleport as close as he could to Mr. Action. Crimson thought this brawl would end within seconds considering he was fighting an inexperienced examinee, who arguably didn't appear that strong. And yet somehow this girl was able to avoid his attacks, not sloppily either, she seemed to find it incredibly easy.

"You've got skill kid, I'll give you that!"

" _You have no idea…"_ she thought.

Toki Wakai, her Quirk, **Battle Clairvoyant**. Toki's Quirk allows her to foresee what her opponents will do up to fifteen seconds into the future. Her Quirk only allows her to see the future if it is combat related, more specifically if someone means her harm, meaning she cannot predict accidents that happen to harm her. She can also use her Quirk to focus on someone else's combat future, meaning if an ally were fighting someone else, as long as she focuses her vision on her ally she can see what harm will befall them.

While Crimson was still busy with his pint-sized opponent, Shun made it to Mr. Actions side. "Are you okay?"

Mr. Action gave a weak chuckle, "Okay? I'm in tip top shape my boy!" a winking smiley face flashing on his screen. He groaned as he got up, "I just wasn't expecting to lose my Quirk is all. Now that I have it back though, I'll deal with this villain real quick!"

Shun helped support the Pro. "Are you sure you can Mr. Action? You took those explosions head on."

"I'm fine really…just need a second. Come on, we have to help your friend!" he ordered, nodding his head over at Toki.

Toki continued to dance circles around Crimson, but this soon made him suspicious. _"The little bitch is too good. Her Quirk must have something to do with it."_ Deciding to go for a less direct attack, Crimson dripped a line of his blood on the ground and went to blow it up in order to send an explosion the girl's way. He noticed however, the girl moved out of the way well before he even raised his fist to set off his blood.

Still distracted by this oddity, he had not noticed the golden yellow laser beam heading straight for him. And by the time he did notice, it was too late. The blast hit him in the side, blasting him a few feet away, and landing on his back.

Toki looked over to see Ayame who approached nervously. "Even though my blasts were already weak, I made sure not to make it hot enough to burn him…it only hurt him a little."

Toki could barely hear Ayame's words, as she was too focused on her face. "Is…this why you wear that cloth around your head?" Toki examined where two eyes should be, but instead there was only one large cyclops-esque eye with a golden iris on Ayame's face.

With a squeak of embarrassment, the one eyed girl hurriedly tied the black cloth back around the top half of her head. "Please, don't tell anyone...it's embarrassing and weird looking..."

Ayame Hikaru, her Quirk, **Eye Laser**. Using her singular eye, Ayame can shoot out an intense laser beam. The more she uses it, the weaker it slowly becomes, she can restore its strength by simply not using it for a while. In addition, continued use hurts her eye. She can also choose how damaging her laser is, i.e. she can choose whether a laser shot can be deadly or only painful, of course when weakened it's harder to make deadly.

"You girls ok?" asked Mr. Action as he made his way to the examinees.

"Just fine sir," replied Toki.

"Good, now I need all three of you to make your way to the observation building. Come now, post haste!"

"What, we can't leave you to deal with this guy alone!" Shun protested.

"What if the white cloaked guy comes back…" Ayame pointed out.

A red X flashed on Mr. Action's screen. "Sorry children, but I can't have you in harms way. You're gonna have to leave this to a Pro!" he finished with a flexing of his arm muscle. "And besides, back-up should be here soon enough!"

"But-"

Action wagged his finger and shushed, "No more words, only exits! Now you three get going and stay safe!"

With no further words, the three departed together for the observation building. Action checked on the villain, who had now risen and was readjusting his gauntlets.

" _Damn, I'm feeling woozy. I think I've used more blood than I realized. I really wanna cave this guy's face in, but it'd be better to use my blood to escape, not to mention now that he has his Quirk back it'd be dangerous to get close to him. Heh, guess Claire's constant worrying is finally getting to me."_ Quickly laying down two thick lines of blood on the ground, Crimson ignited both with his fists, causing an outward explosion of rubble to fly towards Mr. Action. Action, happy to have his Quirk back, used one leg to rapid fire kick the incoming debris. Only when the smoke had settled did Action notice the villain made his escape.

" _I hope Libra's been having more luck than me,"_ Crimson thought as he made his way to go meet up with Cleric.

* * *

Libra was infuriated by his luck. "What do you mean the Pros are coming!?" he shouted over the phone to Reina.

"Literally what I just said man, the police and some street Pros are already working on getting inside, and two of the Pros scheduled to be there are on their way," Reina warned.

"Shit! I thought we'd have a little more time. Any idea who they are?" Libra asked hurriedly, still running to get to Rorschach's tiger beast.

"Mother Nature and Arthur, by the looks of it."

"Damn it! Alright, you inform Rorschach of the situation, I'll let Helios and Habrok know. In the meantime, I'll be using Rorschach's beast to buy us some time."

"Got it, stay safe Li."

After his phone call, Libra made it to the gate where the large black tiger still stood guard. Libra searched for the manual gate controls, and once finding them and hitting the switch, the Section B gate dragged open with a metal groan.

Standing in front of the inky jungle cat, Libra ordered, "Go out there and slaughter anyone and everyone you come across."

With the best roar the ink beast could muster, it turned tail and immediately sprinted out past the gate. Hoping that the creature would draw the attention of the police and Pros, Libra shut the gate.

"I hope Habrok and Helios have finished their task."

* * *

Tsuneo and I continued to watch in shock as Habrok was about to sink his talons into the girl's exposed stomach. I snapped back to reality upon hearing the sound of rushing water behind me, identifying it to be multiple tendrils of water shaped like fists. Following them to the source led to a broken fire hydrant, and standing next to it…

"Kimiko…" I uttered under my breath.

Without even a hint of hesitation, she launched the watery fist towards Habrok in an attempt to capture him. Spreading his wings, he launched into the air and soared over head to avoid the water tendrils. It seemed Tsuneo had found his bravery in the meantime because he had already rushed past me and was assisting the injured boy from earlier. Seeing as how Habrok was too high for the water to reach, Kimiko instead used it to begin putting out the spreading fire within the vicinity.

"Damn it, I need to do something," I muttered.

I rushed forward, my palms were already alight. _"Can't waste time talking to her, she won't listen. I need to scare her off."_ I unleashed a torrent of flames her way, the roaring inferno only a few feet away from her. But it wouldn't even matter, due to the fact she simply combined a few of her water fists and slammed them down upon my fire. A death stare was still plastered on her face. _"Right, scaring is most definitely not a viable option with Kimiko…."_ Habrok came diving down from the sky, moving in to counter attack Tsuneo, delivering a swift slash across his chest. Thankfully, he was intercepted by a large man who tackled him to the ground. The two grappled for a bit before Habrok shook free of him, the two now on equal footing.

"I know there's no point in talking to a crazy bastard like you, but I might as well give you and your friend one chance to stand down," the large man said in a detached voice.

Habrok responded by spreading his wings and revealing his talons.

"Figures."

The large muscular man raised his fists in response, and stared down the falcon man with his narrowed black eyes. His smooth bald head was then covered in a layer of some sort of metal, from the top of his head to his collarbone; even his eyes had a metal layer over them.

Battering Ram, his Quirk, **Titanium Head**.Battering Ram's Quirk allows him to turn the skin on his head into a hard layer of titanium. This in combination with his incredible leg strength makes him quite adept with head ramming and headbutts.

With the ram and the hawk duking it out, I was once again left to deal with my old friend. Looking back I could see Tsuneo stumbling forward to help the boy and girl from earlier get to safety, meaning it was just me and Kimiko. She made sure I was aware of this fact by slamming down a watery fist in front of where I was looking.

"You're not going anywhere near them," she threatened before continuing, "saving idiots like them is why I'm becoming a Hero." Using a tendril to pick up a nearby broken bot, she used its remains to smash open another close by fire-hydrant, which gave her even more water to work with

Before she could act, I came up with a quick strategy. I began blasting small repetitive shots of fire at her, which made her respond how I anticipated, using her water to block the fire. _"Good, looks like she still has trouble focusing her water to do more than one thing at a time. Otherwise she could have just had some of those tendrils attack me while defending with the others."_

I decided to talk to her in the hopes of distracting her further, just trying to buy some more time until I could think of a way to handle this situation. "You? A Hero? You and every other Pro in this place are nothing but a bunch of fakes."

Yep, that pissed her off. But it had the desired effect I wanted, she wasn't focusing on the fight as much as before. "And what would a disgusting villain like you know? You're all the same, just a bunch of bloodthirsty, greedy, irresponsible, psychopaths! None of you know what being a hero means!"

I ended up pissing her off more than I should have. A large rush of water snaked through the air before hitting me directly and sending me reeling across the pavement. Drenched, I got back up quickly, only to freeze in shock when I realized that huge blast of water slipped my mask off. _"Crap, crap, crap!"_ I managed to find my mask and quickly strapped it back onto my face, but it was already too late. I looked over to see Kimiko, but with a look on her face I hadn't seen in years. Pure astonishment.

"Akio…?"

I wasn't sure what to do. All I could do was reflexively back away from her.

"All this time…."

For every step I took back she would take one forward, the look on her face was slowly starting to turn back into one of her usual angry ones.

"Tsuneo and I were worried something bad happened to you…and yet this whole time...!"

No, this wasn't usual. She wasn't angry. She was god damn furious.

"I knew it! You're just like your mom! I can't believe I actually….ugh!" she gripped her head, clearly disgusted that she had actually cared about my wellbeing.

I finally found my will to speak, "Kimiko, listen-"

"NO! You don't have any right to call me by name! You…you're…you're just one of them! I can't believe I didn't see this coming! This whole time you were missing, you were cozying up to the villains you bastard!"

"Listen, what I'm doing is for a good cause-"

"Good cause!? Killing Pros in front of kids? That's a good cause!?"

"I'm sorry Kimiko, but if this society of complacency and false Heroes is going to be fixed," I looked her dead in the eye, showing her I wasn't afraid anymore, "it all needs to be burned to the ground. Starting with the Pros that protect this worthless society we live in."

A mix of anger and bafflement spread across her face as more and more water tendrils came from the pouring hydrants. "You're fucking insane!"

Running, dodging, attacking, none of my options would save me from the watery pain that was about to descend upon me. But thankfully, I soon found myself off my feet and soaring through the air. It was Habrok, who had descended from on high and picked me up by the fabric of my coat shoulders.

"Our hunt has to come to an early end Akio! These dogs have called for the rest of their pack, we must retreat if we're not to be outnumbered!" he shouted to me over the rushing wind.

"How do you know?" I questioned as we landed in the streets.

"I got a message from Libra, we're all pulling out. I just hope someone else was more successful. Our hunt could've gone better…" he trailed off in disappointment. In an awkward silence we opened the manhole and once more descended into tunnels below the city to meet with the rest of the team.

* * *

A battered Battering Ram approached the still enraged Kimiko. "Thanks for the help kid, but you need to get to the escape tunnel."

Suddenly, a loud stomping could be heard. The source was a large ink giant that had rounded the corner, now staring down at the Pro and the young lady.

"On second thought, I could use some help with this guy," Battering Ram sighed.

Still pent up with rage, Kimiko gladly prepared herself to absolutely decimate the giant, which she viewed as nothing more than a large punching bag to release some anger.

Meanwhile, Tsuneo had finally slowed down, burdened by carrying two people while also working through the pain of his bleeding chest had finally taken its toll on the boy. Working through his own minor pains, Kenichi held up Tsuneo. "Damn it, you idiot. You can't go saving someone if you're just gonna break-down yourself." There was no response. "Damn it! Hey, pinky, help me carry him! We owe the little bastard."

Still clutching her bleeding side, Hisa agreed, "Yeah, I should be good, here I'll take this side."

The two hoisted him up and pushed forward to go get help. "He's…okay right?" Kenichi asked, trying to belie his worried tone.

Hisa nodded with a huff. "Yeah, I think he's just passed out."

* * *

After jogging quickly through the tunnels, Habrok and I soon met up with the rest of the group at the escape ladder. It seemed everyone was there apart from Fog.

"Where's Fog?" I asked.

"Knowing him, he probably slipped away on his own at some point. I'd expect nothing less of him," Reina answered with certainty.

"We'll talk back at the hideout, for now we need to move!" Libra ordered, already climbing the ladder.

Once topside, Gorou placed a hand on Libra's shoulder, spawning several identical copies of him that all ran off in separate directions. "Hopefully this will throw off any possible pursuers," Gorou uttered.

"Alright everyone, remember the routes you're supposed to take?" Libra inquired.

We all nodded or affirmed in some way.

"Good, we'll meet back up at the hideout, good luck."

And with that, we all split up and began to sneak our way back to the hideout. Libra had given me a fairly easy route to take since I was new and he didn't want to risk me getting caught. We all headed back without knowing who had succeeded in killing off a Pro or not, but we'd soon learn.

* * *

After the last two ink beasts were taken care of (the giant killed by Kimiko, and the tiger taken down by some Pros) the police and nearby Pros moved in to secure the city. Blade Dancer and Battering Ram waited patiently in the observation building for their fellow faculty members, who would arrive after they had taken care of the injured. The two first Pros to arrive entered with dour looks.

"Mother Nature," Blade Dancer said as the two stepped forward to greet their co-workers. "Is Action ok?"

The older woman gave a warm smile. "Yes dear, he's battered and bruised, but we know he's been through far worse."

"The police have escorted him to receive medical aid," Arthur followed up.

"Where is Madhouse?" Mother Nature questioned while looking around.

"He escorted the children out through the safety tunnel. Almost all of them were fine, but the Doc called and said a few came in pretty injured. The villains did it of course," Battering Ram informed.

Mother Nature shook her head in dismay. "Simply horrible. How could anyone bring themselves to harm a child? This news in addition to deaths of those police officers, these monsters clearly have no moral compass."

"A more important question is, who were these villains? And why did they do this?" Arthur pondered while stroking his goatee.

"The who shouldn't be too hard, some of them certainty weren't first timers. As for the why, who knows? Most villains are just psychos with a bloodlust," Battering Ram said assuredly.

"Let's just be thankful, this could have been far worse. They said their objective was to kill us, and they failed," stated Blade Dance.

Arthur, who was still stroking his chin, spoke up in a foreboding tone, "Yes, if their objective was to simply kill you and be done with this, then yes they failed. However, I can't help but feel that they may have succeeded in another regard."

"What do you mean Arthur?" Mother Nature asked in concern.

"To be quite frank, I fear this event will only bring inspiration to other such criminals and outlaws. Sanctuary High is a symbol of peace in this city. Seeing its grounds being intruded upon by villains who then attacked children and faculty, how will this look to other villains?"

The other three exchanged worried glances.

"Fear is a powerful weapon, a weapon that we have used against the tyrannical villains of this city for years now. The villains have been less bold because they fear to even attempt to commit crime, worrying that they will be stopped immediately by us. But this incident could very well spark a hope within them," the often cheerful Arthur had a rare aura of dread about him as he finished, "a hope that they can kill the peacekeepers that have kept them suppressed for so long."


	7. Killers

Chapter 7: Killers

Tsuneo's eyes snapped open, shooting up from the bed he lay in, only to stop from the stinging pain coming from his chest.

"Easy there kid," a voice soothed as a hand placed upon his shoulder guided him back down to lay flat on the bed.

"Who're you? Ah! Is everyone ok!? What happened to those villains?!"

"Relax kid, I'm Doctor Madhouse, I work here at Sanctuary High," he said in a casual tone.

" _Here at Sanctuary High? Am I in Sanctuary!?"_ Tsuneo couldn't help but think with excitement.

Tsuneo looked over to the middle aged man. He had semi-long chestnut colored hair tied back into a ponytail that reached down to his shoulders. His faced was refined and covered by a neat stubble goatee. The thing out of place was a scar that started on his left eyebrow, came down across the eyelid, and then ended a little past his cheekbone. Despite the scar near his eye, the pupils behind his simple round eyeglasses were quite warm and inviting, sharing a similar shade of brown as his hair. Although, Tsuneo couldn't help but get some sort of inclination that he was hiding something behind those eyes.

The doctor crossed his legs and leaned back in his swivel chair as he explained, "You were pretty hurt when that young man and lady brought you to me. I gave you a quick patch up with what I had on hand, then I had one of the other examinees carry you through the escape tunnel. Seeing as how the school was closer than the hospital, and that I was there, the police gave us a lift to have you and a few other kids treated here." He chuckled with a comforting smile, "Your injuries were certainly bad but nothing life threatening, trust me I checked."

Doctor Madhouse, his Quirk, **Diagnosis**. By looking at someone his Quirk allows him to immediately tell if a person is injured, what their injury is, and how to best treat it. His Quirk works for internal and external injuries.

"To answer your other questions, everyone back at the exam got out fine for the most part. Those kids that brought you in needed some help too, but they've already been seen to and taken home. As for the villains, from what I heard they all managed to escape."

Tsuneo suddenly remembered something, something that troubled him. _"When we were escaping while Kimiko fought that villain…when I looked back…I could have sworn that he looked like…"_

"Anyway! So, shall I operate?" the doctor asked, an insane grin spreading on his face while holding up multiple suturing needles.

"…huh?" Tsuneo's full attention was now back on the man sitting next to him. "B-but I thought I was fine?"

"Oh no, I just gave you a quick patch up. We're going to need to deal with those cuts on your chest." He got out the rest of his suturing kit, the insane look on his face growing even more frightening. "I won't lie, this is going to hurt. A lot. But hey, it'll leave you with a few wicked scars by the end!"

Tsuneo was sweating bullets. "I-is that really necessary doctor?"

The doctor had a look of disappointment before pocketing his needles and returning once more to a normal comforting grin. "No I suppose not. Nurse Mamba has been the one healing everyone with actual harsh injuries. I just figured you'd like it better if you got some cool scars out of this. That and I love the look on student's faces when I first shove the needle into their skin," he said with an all too genuine smile.

Before Tsuneo could even process what Madhouse's last sentence was, the doctor shouted out, "Nurse! This kid is finally ready for you!"

The injured boy then turned his attention to the office door, and in walked the school nurse. The young woman's body was fair and beautiful, and she wore a traditional white nurse uniform. However from the neck up she had the head of a black mamba.

"I'm relieved to see you're awake young man!" she chirped happily.

Between the worrisome doctor and now the reptile nurse, Tsuneo's nervousness increased ten-fold.

"Now, hold out your arm sweetie," the nurse ordered while coming to his bedside.

"Trust me kid, this'll heal you much quicker than my traditional operation," Madhouse added.

Tsuneo hesitantly held out an exposed arm to the nurse, who wasted no time in baring her fangs and chomping down on said arm. The boy felt something being injected into his arm, a feeling of drowsiness following suit. The woman soon released him, wiping her mouth she smiled and said, "Just rest up for a little longer and you should be good to go home."

Tsuneo then noticed the pain from his chest was gone. Observing his body, he noticed any sign of the talon cuts were completely gone.

"Another flawless operation nurse," Madhouse chortled.

Nurse Mamba, her Quirk, **Healing Venom**. Mamba has venom that she can inject via her fangs, which can heal injuries almost instantly. The side effect is that the recipient of the venom will become numb and drowsy for a short time.

"I'll be taking my leave doctor," she said with a bow to her co-worker.

Idly waving he called, "Thanks Mamba, see you tomorrow." Looking back to Tsuneo, who was struggling to keep his seemingly heavy eye-lids open, he got up and explained, "Blade Dancer wanted to talk to you for second. Why don't you have a little rest while I fetch her."

"Talk to…me?" Tsuneo uttered, trying to fight off the urge to curl up and sleep in the comfy infirmary bed.

"She's had a short chat with most of the examinees, don't worry it'll be quick," he casually explained still halfway out the door and not turning back.

After waiting for a good fifteen minutes, Tsuneo shook himself awake to listen to the Pro that had come through the door. Silently she strode in and delicately sat cross-legged in the swivel chair. "Glad to see you're all right young man. Madhouse didn't give you too much trouble did he?" she asked, clearly trying to break the ice.

"No, it's just…he's a little…"

"Frightening?"

"Yeah."

The Pro rolled her eyes, explaining, "Well that's to be expected. He used to be a villain after all."

"He was a villain!?" Tsuneo couldn't help but shout in disbelief.

"Well technically. When he was younger he was a back alley doctor for criminals. Then one day he decided he liked inflicting pain more than treating it," she finished in an ominous tone.

" _How the Hell did he get a job in this place!?"_ Tsuneo screamed internally.

"But thankfully, Mother Nature set him straight, and now he teaches here and serves as our secondary nurse." She shifted in her chair, leaning a little closer. "Now then, on to a more important matter. You were one of the examinees that actually had an up close encounter with some of the villains that attacked today. So I was wondering, could you tell me anything of interest?"

"Anything of interest?" the boy repeated.

"Yes, did they mention anything odd, did you catch where they might have gone, basically anything that can help us understand or find them." She folded her hands and gave a sharp stare, waiting for a response.

"Oh, well….no I don't think so."

Her brow rose as she continued to stare.

" _It's not even worth mentioning. It's stupid. You were hurt and tired, which probably just made you imagine things. Hell, maybe that guy just looked like him….yeah."_ Tsuneo continued to struggle with these thoughts as he looked back at the Pro, trying his best to make sure he wasn't showing any of his self-doubts to the woman.

Blade Dancer sighed, "Yeah, that's been the general answer." She started mumbling to herself, a scowl following suit. Looking back at the young man who had a look of worry for her, she apologized, "Sorry, it's just that you were the last one for me to question. I thought for sure at least one examinee would have caught something of note." Standing up she continued, "Anyway, we already called your parents and informed them of the situation while you were asleep. A police escort will be taking you home shortly." She then turned and made her way to the door in one swift motion.

"Wait!" Tsuneo called out.

She stopped and looked back, waiting for him to continue.

"I hope it's not rude of me to ask but…will our exam score still count despite what happened today?"

Somewhat surprised that after all that happened today that this is what the boy was worried about, she informed him, "The test was minutes from being over anyway. So yes, all scores will be counted, and you should receive your result in the mail within the next few days. Now then," she resumed her original exit, "good day and stay safe young man."

Despite all that happened, Tsuneo couldn't help but lean back in the bed in relief. "I just hope my score was good enough," he whispered to himself.

* * *

When I had finally arrived back at the hideout, I could see that I was fifth to make it back. Reina, Habrok, Cleric, and Crimson were already here, milling about and discussing the mission. As I entered, I could hear Habrok and Crimson talking heatedly about something, while Cleric sat reserved, clearly too nervous to stop the two. Reina was sitting in a chair attentively looking over something on her laptop, but that was nothing out of the ordinary.

"So after all your boasting and having your foe severely handicapped, you couldn't even kill one pathetic dog," Habrok taunted.

"Hey, I had to use a shit ton of blood beforehand AND I was by myself! You were at full strength and you had Akio with you, what's your excuse!?" Crimson shouted back. "I mean come on, not killing the Pro is one thing, but you couldn't even kill one of those fucking brats?" Noticing that I had walked in, Crimson focused his gaze on me. "So princess, how many did you kill? None? What a shocker," he said in a mocking tone.

Before I could even retort, Habrok cut in with, "Actually, Akio seemed to have a hard time even hurting our opponents."

I was filled with embarrassment as Crimson got a big grin on his face. "Really now? Ha! So you're telling me after all this training and preparation, when you actually go against the enemy, you fucking choke? Wow kid, I'm sure glad you're on the team," his words were filled sarcasm and disdain.

Holding out his bird like hand in objection, Habrok explained, "No, I've seen how a man hesitates in a fight. Akio was holding back."

Crimson stepped closer to me, his fists clenched. "Oh! So he didn't even just fuck up, he fucked up on purpose!"

"That's enough, all of you!"

Libra had walked in with Gorou and Rorschach. The well-dressed woman wasted no time with us and headed straight for her room, Gorou shuffling over to where his sister sat. Libra stared all of us down.

"So, no one was able to kill a single Pro?"

Crimson's glare was now on Libra. "Like I said back in the tunnel, it was out of my control. And it turns out Habrok, got fucked over by this little moron," he accused while pointing at me.

Libra's gaze slowly shifted over to me, stepping closer he sternly asked, "Akio, is this true?"

I was dead silent, feeling everyone's accusatory looks upon me made a cold sweat run down my back. I hadn't felt this way since I had first joined the group, I felt like I was an outsider, like I didn't belong with these hardened criminals. "I…yes, but I just didn't…think it was necessary to kill the examinees."

"Didn't think it was necessary!? Kid, you're-"

"Crimson, enough!" Libra growled.

Crimson gave me one last contemptuous look before stomping off, muttering under his breath something along the lines of "stupid fucking kid…". Cleric quickly got up and went after him, most likely going to try and calm him down. However I wasn't off the hook yet, because Habrok then gave his opinion, "Akio, our hunt would have gone much more smoothly had you taken care of the fledglings distracting us." With crossed arms he looked at me with disappointment and parted with, "Do not show mercy to your enemies, because they will give you none. Make that mistake, and you'll wind up in a cage." Without another word, the bird man made his way to the roof.

I turned back to Libra, only able to utter what felt like a pointless, "I'm sorry."

Whether it was because of my actions, the failure of the mission, or a mix of the two, Libra sighed while rubbing his temples and walked away. He was clearly trying to bottle up his frustrations.

I sat crestfallen on the couch for a fair amount of time, just trying to process my short comings and of course the ire I had earned from some of my teammates. Thankful though, there was still one person in the room who wasn't upset with me.

Wrapping a protective arm around me, Reina tried to ease my distress, "It's okay kiddo, we all make mistakes. What's important is that we learn from them."

"This mission was a failure and I can't help but feel like I'm the one who botched it. Maybe if I had done a better job, Habrok and I could have killed that Pro in time," I said dejectedly reflecting on my choices.

"Akio, there's no point in worrying over what you could have or should have done, that time has passed. Focus on what you can do in the future to make things better," she said with a smile, almost sounding somewhat wise, which was rare for the often lazy woman. "Now if you'll excuse me, I think I've earned a nap. All that damn walking has tired me out."

Content with her day of work she fell face first onto the couch and immediately shut her eyes, Shade showing up soon after to curl up with the sleeping woman. Smiling and silently thanking her, I ruminated on what to do from there. I knew I'd have to try and make amends to everyone, but I'd have to do it carefully, as some were angrier than others…clearly. I wasn't sure when I'd talk to Crimson or Libra, but for the time being I decided it'd be best to start with Habrok. Wasting no time, I carefully made my way up the many old dilapidated stairs to get to the training area up on the roof. The training area was almost entirely used solely by Libra and I, however every now and then Habrok would come up as well to train and stretch his wings, which eventually led to us sparring and training together.

Stepping out onto the roof bathed in the light of the setting sun, I approached the sitting Habrok, who was looking up at the sky. "Hey, Habrok."

Focusing his attention on me he replied curtly, "Akio, if you've come to apologize, don't. Just do not make that mistake ever again."

Well that was unexpected. I stood there awkwardly for a moment, I didn't know what to say, but I didn't want to just walk away. So I came up with an idea to learn something useful while it's just the two of us alone.

"Habrok, how are you okay with killing people?"

He looked at me like I had just asked the dumbest question in the entire universe.

"I mean, Pros I could somewhat understand but…I mean you showed no hesitation trying to kill those examinees," I followed up on my previous question.

"What, you think just because they're children I am supposed to show them mercy?" he asked back. Before I could answer, he continued, "In truth, I take no joy in killing children. But these are no mere children we're dealing with Akio, they're Pro Heroes in training, you mustn't forget that. They are our enemy just as much as the Pros are."

"I understand…" I should have understood this from the start. Kimiko is incredibly strong despite having no official training, and no doubt many other examinees that passed the test are just like her. I can't hold back just because they're kids like me. But killing…

"To answer your other question on how I'm okay with killing others….well I suppose the simple answer is, I just am." Noticing my confusion he attempted to explain it better, "I won't lie, I know it isn't normal to take pride in killing another, but I just can't help it. It's all thanks to Pros and my brother that I've come to accept this fact."

"You have a brother?"

"I did, an older one. Our parents died when we were both still young, and the two of us ended up living on the streets. We looked out for each other and he taught me how to become a stronger man. When we were younger we survived by stealing, but as we got bigger and stronger, we resorted to mugging as well."

Hoping I wasn't over-stepping my boundaries I asked, "So, what happened to him?"

Thankfully Habrok answered with no hesitation, "One day while we were mugging some old man, a young fresh faced Pro came along and tried to stop us. I was still a pathetic whelp back then so I was frightened by the Pros, but my brother tried to fight him off. That 'hero' just wouldn't stop hitting him, he just kept going and going, seeing my brother beaten to a bloody pulp finally gave me the courage I needed. I wanted him to experience even worse suffering than what he had done to brother, so I jumped onto his back and started digging my talons into his flesh."

"So did he…"

"That Pro was the first person I ever killed. I was overwhelmed with emotion, relieved that I stopped him, yet I shook with fear. Passing civilians heard the commotion and called for help, and thus against my own desire to stay and help him, my brother ordered me to run. So I did," his voice clearly had a hint of regret to it.

"So what happened to him?"

"I soon found out that my brother was far more injured than I had realized. After he was captured he had died from his wounds. I then heard what people were saying about me." He looked down at the ground angered. "The family of the young Pro I had killed was in an uproar. Everyone covering the story kept painting him as an innocent victim, and they kept saying the same thing about me over and over again," he paused, clearly reliving the experience. "Lock that damn animal in a cage. That's what everyone said. I didn't mean to kill him, and yet everyone treated me like a bloodthirsty monster."

He got up, towering over me he asked, "So do you know what I did?"

I simply shook my head.

"I decided, if they're going to call me an animal then I might as well act like one too. They're the ones that so desperately wanted to paint me as a monster, so I'm merely obliging their request. I'm somewhat thankful those events happened however, otherwise I would have never experienced the thrill of hunting Pros and the sheep they try to defend."

"Habrok I…"

"I don't expect you to understand my reasoning or feelings. Just know I've come to terms with killing, and if you're going to be a villain Akio, you'll need to come to terms with it as well." For the first time I had ever seen, Habrok's face wasn't intimidating or angered in any way. It was a look of sympathy.

"I understand. I don't know if I can come to terms with it quickly, but regardless, the next time we're on a mission I won't hold back."

He nodded and patted me on the shoulder. "I know you can do it little Akio."

* * *

Tsuneo sat at his desk idly browsing his phone. After the incident with villains at the entrance exam, Tsuneo's worried mother had smothered him for an hour constantly checking to make sure he wasn't hurt. Tsuneo's father on the other hand just congratulated him on surviving a villain attack and gave him a high-five. Now he was in his room finally able to relax after the day's events.

"Hmm?"

His phone buzzed, alerting him to an unexpected text from Kimiko. Curious, he opened it.

 _Kimiko: We need to talk. Meet me at the park at six in the morning._

Short and to the point as always. Tsuneo knew it must be something serious if she would bother to grace him with a face to face meeting. Pondering on what she wanted to talk about, Tsuneo thought back to the villain he had seen during the attack. His Quirk, the way he talked, and that small glimpse of him without his mask...

" _It's just coincidence or my mind playing tricks,"_ he kept thinking to himself.

He decided to head for bed and get some deserved rest. Thinking that perhaps he could bring the topic up with Kimiko in the morning.

* * *

The next morning I decided I should apologize to Crimson next. The whole night I had been weighing who would be better to start with, Crimson or Libra. Despite what had happened yesterday everyone still went about their usual morning routines. Gorou and Rorschach were in the kitchen area, Reina sat with Shade on the couch, Habrok was up on the roof for some morning exercise, and even Crimson and Cleric were watching TV like usual. However Libra was still holed up in his room, and so I decided I should speak to Crimson first.

"What do you want?" he snapped as I approached.

Taking a deep breath I pushed myself to just get it over with, "I just wanted to apologize for failing my part of the mission."

"Apologize!? Look here you weak little-" he stopped when Cleric gently squeezed his shoulder. Composing himself he uttered, "Right, stay calm. Inside voices." Letting out an exhale he looked back at me, still having an unfriendly aura about him, but clearly restrained. "Look there's no need for your half-assed apology. Do whatever you want, just make sure you don't fuck over the rest of us when you do it. Got it!?"

Well that went better than I honestly could have expected. But I couldn't just say 'Really? Ok, thanks!' no, I wanted to make sure he understood I wouldn't put the team at risk again with behavior.

Dropping to my knees I made a solemn vow, "I swear I will not disappoint you. I will do whatever it takes to make sure we succeed in the future. So thank you for this second chance!"

Cleric smiled and giggled at my gesture, while Crimson had a disgusted confused look on his face. "Yeah sure, whatever you little weirdo. I'm dead serious though, if you don't shape up in the future I'm gonna kick your ass."

"Deal," I agreed, leaving our exchange at that. As I walked away I could hear Cleric faintly offering Crimson praise for not punching me in the face. Briefly peeking back I could see he was blushing as Cleric wrapped her arms around him. I still wasn't sure why Crimson was always so irritated with me, but hopefully I could prove my worth to him in the future.

Now that I had made amends with Habrok and Crimson there was only one person left that I had greatly wronged. Standing outside Libra's door I mentally prepared myself. Up until now I had always viewed Libra as a partner and mentor, but yesterday when he looked at me after hearing what I did, I was reminded that this man was technically my boss and he could get rid of me if he wanted.

Suddenly the door was slightly ajar, leaning out was Libra, still masked but missing his usual white cloak. "I heard you shuffling about out here. What do you need Akio?"

Caught off guard I stammered, "Oh! Um I just wanted to…apologize?"

He stared at me for a moment, it was the same look he gave me back when I had first introduced myself to him. Then he ordered, "Come in."

Not even considering questioning him I dutifully entered. Libra had certainly done his best to turn this once grimy abandoned living space into something of his standards, that is to say his room looked immaculate in comparison to the rest of our hideout. He motioned for me to sit on the lone chair he had in the room while he sat upon his fairly clean bed.

"Akio, I'm going to ask you a question. Know that no matter what you say, I will not be angry. I need you to be honest with me."

Tensing up a bit I said, "Of course, what is it?"

"Do you have what it takes to be a villain?" he leaned forward, his words cutting into me, "Do you honestly believe that you can hurt or kill others in order to bring about a more just society. Because if you can't, you need to quit. Now."

Even hidden behind a mask just his look alone made a chill run down my spine. Just like when we had first met I knew he would be able tell if I was lying, and so I needed to decide whether it was true or not. We won't always be fighting Pros. Police, civilians, students training to become heroes, all of them might end up in our path of destruction. Can I live with myself knowing I might have to kill some of them?

After all I had been through so far, how could I say anything else but, "Like I said when I first joined, I'll do anything it takes."

He just stared at me in silence for a moment, looking for any hint that I was lying. Seemingly satisfied by his investigation he stood up, saying, "And just like I said. We'll have to see if you can live up to those words."

After he had said that it felt like I was able to finally breathe and relax from the events of the entrance exam mission. Though now I knew I had even higher standards to live up to, I was just relieved that I had a second chance. Now I'd just have to steel my nerves to face the future ahead. A future where I might have to hurt people I once called friends.

* * *

Tsuneo yawned as he walked into the old park where he, Akio, and Kimiko used to play as children. Walking past some of the worn out playground equipment brought back memories of simpler times, when his dad was still a Pro Hero, when Akio and Kimiko got along, when the two of them used to be a lot happier.

"About time you got here," Kimko huffed from the wooden bench she sat upon. "I said six, it's six twenty-four, you were almost half an hour late!"

"Sorry, you're the one who wanted to meet up so early…"

"Humph. Well I'm sorry I didn't want to risk anyone hearing what we're talking about!"

"Then why didn't we talk over the phone?" Tsuneo questioned, rubbing his sleep deprived head.

"Because this isn't just something we can just chat over the phone about! Sit down!"

Shocked, the grey haired boy quickly sat on the opposite end of the bench. Nervously he spoke up, "Okay so, what do we need to talk about?"

"Are you dense!? Akio, what else could I possibly want to talk about right now!?"

"Akio, what about him?" Tsuneo asked trying to bury his growing worry that what he saw might have been true.

She sighed in frustration, "I know you were busy running away, but I saw you kept looking back over shoulder at me. Surely you saw him after I had blasted him with all that water."

"Well I thought…you know maybe….I think…"

Nodding knowingly she shut the boy up right there, "Yeah you saw him. Like it or not, Akio is working with goddamn villains."

Tsuneo rubbed his face, his anxiety growing. "Okay, maybe it was Akio. But maybe they're forcing him to help them or maybe he's brainwashed. Or-"

"Or maybe he's just another selfish villain abusing his Quirk. Trust me, I talked to him, and he's working with them willingly."

A sudden thought hit Tsuneo, "But wait, Blade Dancer said she questioned everyone for any information on the villains! You didn't tell them about Akio!?"

"That's what we're here to talk about. I didn't want to just rush into a decision like that. He used to be my friend too you know."

Tsuneo ran a hand through his hair, trying to process all this. "So, what should we do?"

Kimiko looked down at the ground and explained, "The police will find out who he is soon enough on their own, there's too much evidence to connect the dots to his identity. But I feel like it's our duty as Pros in training to report him."

"No, well…I mean you said the cops will find out soon enough on their own, so why don't we just leave it be for now…"

"Tsuneo-"

"Kimiko please! Can we just please pretend things are still somewhat normal, just for a bit longer please! I don't want to imagine the guy I've known since I was five is actually capable of helping killers…"

Kimiko didn't like the idea of letting Tsuneo live in his fantasy, one in which Akio was still just this innocent lost boy. But perhaps for the sake of their old friendship she decided to oblige to that request. "Fine, but we have to tell his father."

Tsuneo looked over to her, still trying to grasp the fact Akio was trying to hurt his fellow examinees and future classmates.

"Right? I mean if anyone has a right to know where Akio is, it's his father right? Villain or not I'm sure he'd like to know that his son is alive and well. So you don't have a problem with telling him right?"

Recomposing himself Tsuneo nodded. "Yeah, you're right. He's been worried sick since the day he left. We should tell him together."

"Agreed. But there was actually one other thing I wanted to ask you while we were here." Seeing that Tsuneo replied with a simple questioning look, she continued, "Even if you somehow managed to pass the exam, do you think you can make it as Pro?"

Somewhat lacking its usual full energy, Tsuneo still put on a determined face and replied with, "Yes. Of course I can."

"Even if that means fighting Akio?"

He returned her question with a bright smile. "Fight him? If smacking him in the face until he comes to his senses is what you mean by fighting, then yeah sure. Akio's confused, but we'll help him."

Unable to give a remark about how idiotic that was before the boy got up and started to walk away, Kimiko resigned to just sit back on the bench at look out at the rising sun.

* * *

The rest of the day had actually passed by rather pleasantly. Local news channels covered our attack on the training grounds, news which made Crimson excited to hear that he had landed Mr. Action in a hospital, and Rorschach was pleased to hear her beasts had caused a startling amount of death and destruction. Libra seemed delighted that parents of the examinees were terrified by the event and worry if Sanctuary can keep their children safe. However it seems that despite the event, Sanctuary faculty assured everyone that this was a minor mishap and that nothing like it would occur again in the future. Another important detail was that some covering the news referred to us as The Syndicate.

"Some of the news stations were smart not to mention our group's name," Reina commented. "But the few that did have given any potential villains looking to work in a group a name to track down. Ours."

With our spirits lifted we were able to relax and go about our usual business for a few days. One night soon after however, Reina was browsing her laptop and had received a message from someone, someone important.

"Hmm? Giran?" A smile spread across the woman's lips, "You old dog, what could you possibly want?" The message was labeled "Important offer". Opening it and reading through the details, her heart skipped a beat at the last sentence. "Libra!" she shouted as she hopped out of her chair, off to inform her partner of the very intriguing plan being put together by a group known as The League of Villains.

Of course while all of this was happening, none of knew about a villain who had returned to Corasu city.

* * *

A middle aged man made his way down the sidewalk, talking to his wife over the phone as the day grew late. After arguing with his spouse for few more short minutes he hung up, just eager to get home and try to relax after a hard day. However as he neared a shaded alley, he heard a rough coughing. As he approached he could see a dirty dumpster with a man sitting next to it. The sitting man had tattered jeans and a jacket in rough shape which was most likely at one point black, but was now a dusty grey, clearly due to the wear and tear of time. The outfit clearly marked the man as a street bum. The man planned to just pass by, however he heard the bum call out.

"Hey man, I could use your help."

The man stopped at the entrance of the alley to address him, "Look, I'm sorry but if you're looking for a handout-"

The bum waved his hand dismissively. "Nah nah, nothing like that man. It's just that I've been walking for a good long while now-" he cut himself off with a brief and rough cough, "and I've just been feeling pretty weak."

"Do you need me to call someone for you or something?" the man asked, curious as to where this was going.

"Heh, nah man. I could just really use a hand up. I feel real weak, I can't even get up without pain…" The bum's hand outstretched towards him, "So, can you give me a hand please?"

Against his better judgment the man sighed and walked into the alley and in front of the sitting vagrant. The man reached out and took the sitting man's hand, hoisting him up onto his feet. The man was shocked for a moment when he felt the bum's other hand grip his forearm, however the shock soon passed as he felt the homeless man shake his arm gently.

"Thanks dude, glad to see there are some good people left in this world man," he laughed lightly before giving a brief cough.

"Sure no problem," the man said as he tried to pull his arm back. But suddenly he felt the man's fingers digging into his skin. "Hey!-!?" Before the man could yell at the bum, he was appalled to see that his skin was starting to stiffen and turn to a rusty color where the bum was holding onto him. He tried to pull back once more, but his assailant didn't let go, and thus the rusty substance continued to snake its way up his hand to connect with the substance spreading over his forearm, leaving his right arm unresponsive and heavy. The man next tried to call out for help, but the hand once in his hand was now covering his face, the metallic substance now spreading over his mouth and up to the rest of his face.

The bum forced him to the ground, trying to suppress himself from cackling. "Take it easy brother, don't waste your breath struggling."

The man tried to open his mouth only to find it wouldn't open, it felt as though simply moving his lips was an impossible task. The rusty colored substance continued to spread across his face, the smell of aged iron filled his nostrils, and then he realized what the substance was. His skin was being turned to rust, however something more alarming caught his attention. He couldn't breathe, the rust had sealed his mouth shut and had closed off his nostrils.

The killer looked into the man's eyes. "Shhh, just relax fella."

The rust soon spread over the man's eyes leaving them frozen in a state of horror. For another minute or so the man used his free arm to flail and scratch at the rust covering his face, desperately trying to cling to life as he began to suffocate. The man's arm began to move more slowly and soon enough went limp, seeing this event caused the man's killer to get up and drag him over to the dumpster. After quickly searching the man for what he was after, he extracted the man's wallet and emptied it for any cash inside. Content with his earnings, the vagrant pocketed the cash and dumped the body into the dumpster.

"Thanks again for the help man." The vagrant walked out onto the sidewalk, breathing in a breath of fresh air as he appreciated how heavenly the city looked during the afternoon. "It's good to be home."


	8. What the future holds

Chapter 8: What the future holds

Kimiko stood patiently outside of Tsuneo's home. Well, as patiently as she could. In truth, the only thing holding her back from knocking loudly on the front door and demanding the boy to hurry up was the fact she didn't want to be rude to his parents. Thankfully, after what felt like an eternity of waiting, Tsuneo rushed out of his home, apologizing to his old friend.

"Sorry for the wait! My mom just kept asking me a bunch of questions and-"

"Doesn't matter," she cut in, "let's just hurry up and talk to Mr. Nishimura, he's expecting us."

Tsuneo solemnly nodded. "Yeah, okay."

The girl signaled for him to follow. "Let's hurry, I want to finish this before it gets dark," she stated while looking at the setting sun.

And so the two departed for the Nishimura residence, a trip that would be made mostly on foot. The duo walked in a perpetual silence, Kimiko treating the outing strictly as business, while Tsuneo just didn't know what to say or even if he should say anything. And just when he finally felt like he had worked up the nerve to try and speak to her like he used to when they were friends, Tsuneo suddenly slammed into a lanky man. The unkempt man had come out of an alleyway that the two were passing by, thus Tsuneo hadn't seen him coming.

After recovering from his stumble, Tsuneo approached the man and apologized, "I'm so sorry sir! I didn't see you!"

The man chuckled, waving his hand. "Don't worry about it little dude, accidents happen."

Kimiko had now backtracked over to them, also apologizing, "Sorry sir, my friend here lacks basic awareness for his surroundings," she jabbed.

Another light-hearted laugh came from the man as he placed a hand on his hip and causally swayed a little. "Nah its cool, I can understand. Heroes have made this a pretty peaceful city huh? My dad told me stories from when he was young, about how villains were so problematic around here that kids couldn't even go out for a quick stroll." Before either of the children could respond, the man continued, "So you two classmates? Buddies or something else?"

Kimiko gave a clearly forced smile, trying to be polite. "Yes, classmates, something like that."

Tsuneo tried to get a good look at what he assumed was some sort of vagrant, but the man had his tight hood drawn so low that it was impossible to look at his face inconspicuously.

"So, where are you two kids heading off to?" he asked, his movement becoming rather serpent-esque as he paced around and inspected the teens.

"Off to visit a friend, which reminds me, Tsuneo we need to get moving if we're going to make good time," Kimiko urged the boy to come to her side.

The man bobbed his head, giving the duo a parting hand gesture. "Right, right, silly me. Don't let me keep you kids, run along now. I've got my own stuff to do too."

"Right, well anyway, again sorry he ran into you like that," Kimiko said rather hurriedly as she pulled along Tsuneo.

Still being practically dragged along by his classmate, Tsuneo looked back at the vagrant. He could only see the dusty old jacket and tattered clothing he wore, but as the man turned around, Tsuneo could see a rather odd design on the back of his jacket. The design was aged and faded much like the rest of the jacket, however he could still make out the image. A skeleton on its knees, its hands clasped together in prayer, and its head raised toward the sky as if crying out for God's mercy. Tsuneo was unsettled by both the design and the man who wore it upon his back.

Looking over his shoulder to make sure the children had left, the vagrant walked back into the alleyway. "Now, what donations do you have to offer me brother?" he merrily said whilst searching the pockets of an old man, who was now frozen in a state of horror after being almost completely rusted over.

"Hey Kimiko, did that guy seem a bit…strange to you?"

The girl simply rolled her eyes and said back to him, "Of course, but he was a bum Tsuneo, most of them are a little weird in one way or another. I just didn't want to waste any more time hearing him drone on."

Looking down to his wrist he stated, "Hey, are you going to let go of me at some point?"

Realizing that she was still dragging along her companion by the arm, she released him just as fast as when she had initially started pulling him along. Flipping her long white hair over her shoulder she continued to march forward, leaving Tsuneo to walk faster in order to keep up with her.

* * *

"No, it's out of the question," stated Libra with finality.

"Li, this is what we've wanted! And the chance is being handed to us!" argued Reina.

If this plan succeeds, the Symbol of Peace will be dead. That's what the end of the message on Reina's laptop had said. A group known as the League of Villains, apparently had a plan that would put an end to All Might. And an associate of Reina's reached out to us with an offer to be a part of it, which led to Libra and Reina arguing over whether we should take part in the operation. I was surprised to hear Libra had a problem with it, but he does bring up good points.

"Reina please, do you have any idea how many villains have thought, 'Oh boy! Every other lowlife nobody has failed in defeating All Might, but I'm sure that luck is on my side and that I'll be the one to do it!' it's ridiculous," Libra taunted.

"Li, it's not just some guy or a group like ours. Giran says that there will be dozens of villains showing up to this."

He scoffed with a laugh, "Oh good, all that cannon fodder will drag out what would be a two minute fight into a five minute fight."

"All that 'cannon fodder' isn't why we're going to succeed. Giran told me these guys have a secret weapon to kill All Might. A beast that rivals even his strength."

"So they got some guy with a really good strength Quirk. It's still not going to be enough to kill the Symbol of Peace." He shook his head in frustration, signaling to Reina that he was done talking. "I'm not risking our group on a fool's errand like this! I forbid any of you from being involved in this!" he commanded while storming off.

Crimson raised one of his eyebrows. "Now when did he get the idea that he could forbid me from doing anything?" He leaned forward toward Reina in excitement. "Hey, so tell me more about this killing All Might thing. I'm interested."

When Reina had begun telling us about the message, we were all gathered around in the living area. Rorschach left almost immediately, claiming that even if she wasn't busy trying to fix her tuxedo, she doesn't have the time or ink to prepare 'appropriate' creatures for such a mission. Gorou shared Libra's sentiments and believed the mission was too risky and thus declined from having any involvement, which led to much chastisement from Reina. So this left Habrok, Crimson, Cleric, and I.

Cleric however seemed hesitant about the idea, but didn't leave Crimson's side. "But…are we really going to do this without Libra?"

Reina rolled her eyes while smirking. "Li will get over it. Hell, he'll probably come around soon enough and go along with the plan."

"When's soon enough? When we doin this shit?" Crimson asked, cracking in his knuckles in excitement.

"How will we reach the battleground?" Habrok followed up.

"Well if we agree we'll have a few days to prepare. Most of the villains in attendance will be Musutafu locals, but the League has someone with a warp Quirk, meaning all we need to do is send him our location via text and then bam! We'll be where we're needed."

It was actually pretty funny to see Reina get so excited. Either she had a lot of confidence in this plan or she's just really hoping it works and kills All Might.

"Well then sign me up! I'm eager to let out some aggression after the shit show that happened a few days ago!" Crimson declared.

"Well then I guess I'll go too-"

Cleric was quickly cut off by Crimson, who had lost his enthusiasm and was now looking rather concerned. "Claire, I'd love for you to be there, but with all those UA brats around and not to mention All Might…I'd hate for you to get hurt."

"But that's why I need to go! You'll need my healing!" Cleric protested.

"I think he's right Cleric. All Might, the students, whatever UA facility that will be there, they're all a cut above what you saw at Sanctuary High. Quite honestly it'd be a big risk having you go, and I mean that for Crimson as much as you," Reina warned. "If you get hurt or captured, Crimson will fly off the handle and do something stupid."

"When's she's right she's right," Crimson agreed with a shrug. He then went over to his companion and comforted her, "I'll be fine, you're just gonna have to trust me on this one."

With a solemn look, Cleric nodded in acceptance.

"Okay, so Crimson is definitely a part of this. Habrok, you interested?" Reina prodded the large hawk man.

"A chance to watch the world's greatest hero die? How could anyone say no to that?" was all he needed to say for us to know he'd most certainly be amongst those going.

"Akio?" Reina was looking at me with an all too knowing smile. "This is your chance buddy. Time to make a difference right?"

I nodded with confidence. "Yeah, I'll come too."

"Yeah, can't wait to see how you fuck up this time princess," Crimson mocked. Despite his words, I knew he didn't mind me coming. After all, if he did, he would have been much more outspoken about it. Probably mad as Hell too.

Reina smiled with glee. "Great, I'll let Giran know we'll be there when the time comes. We have a few days so prepare yourselves, and in the meantime I'll try to get Li to stop being a little bitch and actually help us."

With that it was decided, the majority of us would team up with this League of Villains and attempt to kill All Might. More importantly this was my chance to earn back some trust with the group. Once again we'd have to deal with students, but this time I'd be ready. I knew I'd have to be, these were going to be students from UA, one of the best schools in the country. Time to prepare.

* * *

"Haven't been here in a long while…" Tsuneo muttered.

The two stood outside the Nishimura residence, both unsure of how to approach.

"You said he's expecting us right?"

"Yes, I told him we have to talk about something vital…I could tell by his voice he thought, or maybe assumed, it was about Akio," Kimiko answered. Exhaling, she stood straight and marched forward. "Let's get this over with. Whatever he decides to do with this information is up to him, got it?"

"Yeah…got it."

After a firm knock upon the door, it took only a few seconds before Mr. Nishimura came to answer the door. He looked clearly troubled, but managed to hide it well enough behind a nostalgic smile. "Wow…it's been ages since I've seen you two. Especially you young lady," he said with a smile to Kimiko.

"Long time no see Mr. Nishimura," Tsuneo greeted lightheartedly.

Kimiko cleared her throat and awkwardly responded, "Yes well, it's good to see you too sir. But, I believe we should address the matter at hand."

With his usual neutral expression returning to his face, the man gave a brief nod of agreement. "Right of course, please come in."

Following behind the older man, Tsuneo and Kimiko entered into the home's living room, where they sat upon small comfy couch. Mr. Nishimura sat on a chair of similar design across from them. Getting straight to the point he leaned forward in his chair, clearly on edge, he asked, "I won't beat around the bush kids. Is this about my boy?"

Kimiko nodded, and said matter-of-factly, "Yes sir, it is. I'm afraid I have some bad news."

The man tried to hide the look of terror that had almost spread instantly across his face. He continued to listen, clearly perturbed.

"Akio is…he's been working with villains. He was apart of that group that attacked the Sanctuary High entrance exam the other day. I'm sorry…"

"Wait, so he's okay?" the father asked concerned, but clearly eased some-what.

"Er-yes, he is I believe?"

The father breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank God. This whole time I had thought something terrible had happened to him. But still, what does that brat think he's doing running with that crowd?"

"Well no offense sir, but isn't it possibly he got the idea from his mother?" Kimiko pointed out in a tone much colder than she probably intended.

Mr. Nishimura sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Is that what this is about…" he muttered. "Look, Akio has made an incredibly stupid decision working with these criminals….but I do understand where he's coming from. After what happened…to his mother, he's just been bottling up his emotions and has been a little 'tense' around heroes ever since. So when some lowlifes came along and asked him to join them he probably saw it as an opportunity to get revenge…or something."

Suddenly, Tsuneo spoke up, "Sir, I just want to let you know you don't have to worry. I'm not sure where Akio is, but when I find him I promise you I will make sure he comes back!"

" _This idiot…"_ Kimiko groaned in her head. "Well sir it's clear that Akio has clearly been swayed by this groups ideologies, at least judging by what he said to me during the attack. But in a way I believe Tsuneo is right. If Akio is apprehended then perhaps there will be hope that he can be set straight, and maybe in time reenter society as a normal person."

"Apprehend?" Tsuneo echoed in a nervous mutter.

She gave the boy next to her an incredulous look as she emphasized her words, "Yes Tsuneo, apprehend. He needs to be arrested for his criminal activity. Then maybe he can get some help and become readjusted to how a normal person should act."

"Wait, so you haven't informed the police?" Mr. Nishimura cut in.

Giving a dirty glance to Tsuneo she answered, "No, we thought it best to let you decide on that matter. Not that it'd do much for the time being, considering his location is still a mystery."

The older man removed his glasses and rubbed his face, taking in all the information that has been presented to him. "Guess he's more like you after all Hinata…" the older man said under his breath. The man got up and paced around before returning his attention to his guests, "Listen kids….I'm not going to inform the police."

Tsuneo's face was alight with curiosity, while Kimiko's was one of bafflement.

"If he's anything like his mother, I know it's pointless to try and get him to change his mind by force. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to smack that boy upside the head and set him straight, but I know that'd only drive him further away, so I'm just going to let him have his way and let him make his own mistakes."

"But sir! What if he gets seriously hurt or killed!? A-and more importantly what if he ends up killing someone!?" Kimiko shouted out.

The older man exhaled, "I know…but that doesn't change things. I know no matter how much I message him or even if I found him, I'm not going to be able to change his mind. If you two want to tell the police or Hell even try to talk to him, be my guest."

"This is your son we're talking about here, you can't just give up on him like that!"

"I'm not giving up on him, I just know me trying to stop him will only have the opposite effect. My best bet is to hope he realizes his mistake and come back home so we can sort this out."

Kimiko gripped her head in astonishment. "I can't believe this. Your son is making the exact same mistake your wife did, and all you have to say is 'I hope he'll realize this on his own' you're his father-"

"That doesn't matter! Whether I liked it or not, that boy grew up a lot quicker after his mother passed away. I'm his father yes, but he's his own man now. I'll be here if he stops acting like a dumbass, but if he wants to run around like some mindless street thug well then I can't stop him," Mr. Nishimura finished with conclusiveness.

The room was now filled with an awkward silence. Kimiko trying to hold back her emotions, whilst Tsuneo kept looking back and forth between the disgruntled Mr. Nishimura and the bewildered Kimiko. Finally, the girl stood up and marched straight for the door. "Well Mr. Nishimura, it was good to see you again. I hope things work out for you and Akio," she said coldly before exiting.

Quickly, Tsuneo got to his feet to follow after her, but not before bowing and apologizing to Akio's father. "I'm sorry about Kimiko, she's just a little….anyway don't worry, if I see Akio I'll be sure to talk some sense into him." Rather regrettably Tsuneo left the man he had known nearly as long as Akio, and left to keep up with Kimiko.

The older man simply sat down on the couch and leaned back to stare up at the ceiling, taking in the events that had transpired throughout the year. Soon though he glanced over to one of the few pictures still left up featuring the whole family, Akio, Hinata, and himself. "We always wondered who he'd take after when he got older," he chuckled lightly to himself, "looks like he's a little fire starter just like you…"

"Kimiko! Hey! Slow down a little!" Tsuneo shouted ahead to the incredibly fast marching white haired girl. "Hey Kimi-"

She suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, turned around, and yelled, "No, just shut up and go home Tsuneo! I'm sick of all this bullshit!"

"What? What do you mean?"

"How can he just be so…so…so uncaring about this!? His son is literally working with murders and he just keeps treating him like some troubled kid! You do it too Tsuneo! Both of you don't seem to grasp what Akio is!" she breathed heavy, still venting her frustrations, "I can't believe I was stupid enough to actually think he could've been anything else but criminal trash like his mom."

"Hey, he didn't-"

"He lied to us! He tried to kill us and the other kids! And all you and his dad can think about is how to 'redeem' his sorry ass, but the truth is he's just-gah!" she was just a boiling pot of hatred at this point. Returning to a somewhat normal level of anger she then continued to walk. "I'm done with this shit, do whatever you want Tsuneo, but I'm just done. I hope that lying bastard gets killed by one of his crazy villain buddies."

Knowing he was unable to do anything to keep her from walking away, Tsuneo watched in dismay as she stomped down the street. With a heavy heart the boy began to make his own way home. _"She's only this angry because she feels betrayed. Guess she thought maybe you had some potential as a hero after all Akio…"_ he thought despondently.

* * *

Even though it was only the first night after agreeing to the attack on UA, everyone (well almost everyone) was already prepping in one way or another for the mission ahead. Habrok was up on the roof training in the dark (which didn't seem to bother him at all), Cleric, still somewhat meek, was lecturing Crimson on what he should do in certain scenarios during the attack.

"If you see All Might, off guard, what do you do?"

"Pfft, avoid him like the black fucking plague, come on even I'm not stupid enough to tangle with that guy," Crimson smirked.

"Okay, what about a UA student?"

"Well that depends. Are they alone, what's their Quirk, how punchable is their face…"

I decided to leave the two of them to their chat. Reina was typing away at her laptop and looked giddier than a kid on Christmas, so I assume she's setting things up with this Giran person. As I passed by her, she called out to me and asked, "Hey Akio, hate to bother you, but could you go check on Elizabeth for me?"

"Elizabeth? Oh you mean Rorschach?" I asked back.

"Yep yep. She's been in her room for a good long while, just go make sure she didn't slip on some ink and break her neck or something."

Since the sun was set and Libra was locked up in his room, I had been milling about the place aimlessly, so having something to do was very welcome. I made my way over to Rorschach's little slice of our compact hideout and gave the door a knock. No response. I gave a slightly firmer knock, but still no response. Curious, I opened the door slightly and called out, "Rorschach, you in here?"

"This is my room, so obviously. Are you daft Akio?"

Yep, she was in here. I entered the elegant woman's room. "Reina wanted me to check on you. Why have you been in here all day?"

She was at her desk hunched over what seemed to be the coat of her navy blue tuxedo, not looking back to me she said in a teasing voice, "You know it's rude to enter a lady's room without permission young man."

Slightly embarrassed I responded, "Oh right, my bad. I'll be sure to wait for your permission next time."

She giggled, "You're certainly a little different than most villains Akio, I'll say that much. Anyway, to answer your question, I've been trying to fix this tear in my tux for quite some time. I've done an alright job, but I want it to be perfect."

Shocked I blurted out, "Wait, you're still not done fixing it!? But you're usually so fast with your tailoring!"

"Well let me rephrase. I don't want this to be perfect; I need this to be perfect. It has to look good as new."

"If you don't mind my asking, why? You have multiple copies of that tux right? You know because you said just in case something happens to your outfit you'll always have a backup ready."

She shook her head. "Yes, but this was the original. Against my better judgment I wore it for luck, you know because it was our first operation, but it seems it had the opposite effect."

I got closer to her, only now noticing she wasn't wearing her mask, which was a rare sight for me. Her blonde hair with black highlights was pulled back, most likely to keep it out of the way of her work. I could see her eyes focused intently on her work; or rather what I could make out were her eyes, which were akin to two deep black pools of ink more than anything.

"So the original is important to you huh?"

She was silent for a few seconds as she continued to try and fix the tear in the coats shoulder. "Yes, incredibly so. It was a gift from…someone very precious to me. I wanted to always wear it, but I feared it'd get ruined, so I fashioned some copies. It seems it was all for naught though because here I am having to fix it anyway." She finally rotated in her chair to address me, "What about you Akio, has anyone ever given you something you just couldn't part with. A friend, a lover, perhaps family?"

Family…now that I thought about it, Shade and a few family photos were all I had to remind me of my old home. My thoughts began to wander, thinking about what dad would think once he heard that I had become a villain just like mom. Soon enough though, Rorschach's words brought me back to reality.

"Akio?"

"Oh, sorry, spaced out for a sec…"

She smiled knowingly. "I'll take that as a yes to my question. Anyhow, just tell Reina I'm perfectly fine."

"You got it," I affirmed to her request as I shuffled to the door.

"Oh and Akio. Whatever object it is that you value, don't let it go," she brushed a hand across her tux, "it may one day end up being the only thing you have left from them…"

Not intending to bother her further, I exited the room and left the woman to attend to fixing her keepsake. I made my way back to Reina and informed her of what Rorschach was up to, which relieved Reina of that worry. With that dealt with, I planned to head to my room to relax.

* * *

It was already dark out when Tsuneo had finally made it back home, the lights in the house were on. "Good to finally be home…" the boy said, opening the front door.

Unexpectedly, his father rolled his wheel chair towards the front door to meet his son. Tsuneo then noticed he was also holding up a paper of sorts in his hand. "Hey kiddo! It's a letter from Sanctuary High!"

Tsuneo gasped, "Then this is the letter that'll say whether I passed or not!?"

"Bingo my boy! Well come on, open it!" the overjoyed father urged from his chair.

However the two were quickly intercepted by the woman of the household, Tsuneo's mother. "Dear, don't pressure him." Smiling at her son she handed him the envolope, "Why don't you go open it in your room, and take as long as you need."

Reaching out and handling the letter like it was some sort of invaluable relic, Tsuneo rocketed down the halls and to his room. The woman sighed, "What if he didn't get accepted? Do you really think he'd appreciate us seeing that he failed?"

Mr. Ikeda laughed, "Fail? My boy? Not a chance in Hell darling."

In his room, Tsuneo delicately opened the envelope, admittedly going slowly due to the fear of not getting accepted into the Hero Course. Instead of a letter being within however, it was instead a small metal disk of sorts. Tinkering with the device for a moment soon activated it to project a small holographic screen that displayed the Pro Hero Mother Nature.

"Hello, Tsuneo Ikeda, my name is Mother Nature. It's often my husband who does these acceptance videos, but he's a bit tied up with other matters, so I've had to handle them."

" _Oh that's right, I think Mother Nature's husband is the principal of Sanctuary High,"_ Tsuneo thought briefly as he continued to listen in anticipation.

"Now, I know how impatient you children can be nowadays, so I'll get straight to the point. Tsuneo Ikeda, on the written exam you passed marvelously, with a little work it could have been perfect. As for the practical exam…"

" _This is it! Come on! Please!"_

A score board appeared behind the left of Mother Nature. Stepping to the side the camera scrolled down. At the top in **Rank 1** was Kimiko Mizutani, plenty of points were in each of the three categories. **Rank 2** belonged to a boy named Mirou Hon, while **Rank 3** belonged to a girl named Choko Kita. The last name Tsuneo took note of at the top was **Rank 4** Kenichi Kuroyoru, who had most of his points within the battle category. Down and down the list went, name after name, none of which were Tsuneo's. Until it stopped at 40.

The boy gasped, already having to hold back some tears. There at the 40 mark, the very last spot to get into the Hero Course, was his name.

"Well would you look at that, you're our rank 40. You were the last lucky student to make it into the Hero Course." She clapped politely, "Congratulations to you young man!"

The boy could no longer contain it, he jumped out of his seat and cheered joyously, running around the room happier than ever. Hearing the commotion from downstairs, Mr. Ikeda looked up at his wife with a face that could only be described as an "I told you so" look. Deciding to let their child enjoy this moment all to himself for a bit longer, the two shared both looks of worry and pride for their son who was on the path to become a Pro Hero.

* * *

Fog of War finally had a chance to return to his usual resting place, a seedy bar in the less reputable part of town. Well hidden and tucked away, to him it was the only place he felt comfortable relaxing and letting his guard down somewhat. It also helped that the owner bought him multiple fans to keep the air clear in his room when he slept and fog seeped from his lungs. Yes, this was the one place that genuinely relaxed him.

"Yo! Foggy boy! Been waiting for you!" a voice called out as Fog entered the bar.

What was before the slouching man was a peculiar sight. The usual doorman was on the floor covered in rust. The large well-built woman bartender, who was a co-worker of Fog's, leaned against the bar with much contempt for the man drinking away. And there sitting on a barstool, sat a man with long dirty blonde curly hair reaching to his shoulders, his scruffy goatee a similar color. Just like the last time Fog had seen him he was rather unkempt and his skin was sun kissed, what was new was the old jacket with a skeleton design on the back. His dark golden eyes were still filled with the same mischievousness he had seen in them years ago.

"So, this is a friend of yours Fog?" the bartender asked perplexed.

Fog rarely raised his voice, but for this individual he gladly made an exception. "What in God's name do you think you're doing here Malachi?" he said in a restrained voice, holding back his anger. "And what did you do to our doorman?" he finished while looking down at the rusted statue of a man on the floor.

Malachi, his Quirk, **Rust**. Anything he touches will turn to rust, whether it be organic or inorganic. When touching a living creature the rust will spread and cover the outer layer of the skin, but if Malachi continues to touch the living creature the rust will begin to seep into the very pores of the skin and will turn the body into solid rust. An object or person only touched for a few seconds will be rusted but this rust will wear away after a while, prolonged exposure to Malachi's rust is permanent however. Malachi must also focus to use his Quirk, so he cannot rust things on accident by simply touching them.

"Him? He wouldn't let me in and he started getting angry, so I helped him relax a little. I made sure to only touch him for a few seconds on each part of his body, so it'll wear off after a while."

Fog didn't look too reassured by this.

"What? If you want, I can always turn him completely to rust. It'd only take a minute or two."

The bartender glared at Fog. "I'd rather not have your friend killing off my employees."

"He's not my friend," Fog snapped.

Malachi put a hand to his chest and reeled back in shock, "Fog, do you mean that!? I thought we were buddies! I guess I was mis-"

Fog was upon him, a firm grip pulled on the vagrants shoulder as Fog said through clenched teeth, "What do you want you crazy bastard, why are you here?"

Brushing off Fog's hand, Malachi grabbed his glass of whiskey and took a sip. Letting out a satisfied sigh after his drink he answered, "Well, I've returned to finally fulfill my mission."

"Mission?"

The wanderer smiled with joy. "The mission that was given to me by my goddess," his words were dripping with reverence, a look of bliss on his face.

" _Goddess? Wait a minute…"_ Fog had thought he had recognized that jacket. It certainly didn't always belong to Malachi. "So you're here on that bitch's behalf huh? Guess that means she's still imprisoned."

Malachi continued to smile, but Fog noticed for a split second that his eye twitched. "I'll let that comment about my goddess slide only because she liked your mother, but do it again and I'll have to cut out your tongue."

"Whatever, what do you want?"

Malachi emptied his pockets to dump a copious amount of cash onto the table. Looking at the slouching man with a casual grin, he explained, "It's simple, I want you to find my loyal apostles. I know that in mine and the goddess's absence a few sheep have been captured or have strayed away from the flock, but the truly devout still wait for their prophet to guide them. Find them, and tell them I have returned, guide them to this address," he finished, sliding a slip of paper to Fog. The paper listed not just an address, but a list of names as well, which Fog assumed were his "apostles".

His gaze switching back and forth between the names and the money, and then finally to the lanky man sitting on the barstool, still looking at Fog expectantly.

"I hope it's enough. So many kind citizens donated their hard earned money for my cause."

Unceremoniously shoving the note in his pocket he hastily agreed, "Fine, but once I find them, we're done. I don't give a damn what my mother says, we're not getting involved in your nonsense again."

"Fine by me brother, fine by me. As long as you spread the good word of my return, then I'm a happy man. Oh! But one more thing man," he caught Fog's attention, digging around his pockets. He tossed out some extra cash, "I was also wondering if you could get me in contact with those…what are they callin' themselves? The Syndicate I think?"

"Oh joy, you want to work with those idiots as well?" Fog mocked.

"You could say that. I was just thinking I could use a few more soldiers for the cause man," Malachi shrugged smugly.

Gazing at the vagrant rather cynically, Fog muttered, "Right, your 'cause'." Giving a nod to his associate, the bartender began collecting the money on the counter. "Everything you've requested shall be done. Now, get out." Fog's look matched the severity and finality of his voice.

Malachi hopped out of his seat and swished back and forth happily out the door. "You should be happy Foggy, after all, I'm creating Shangri-La for all of us!" Before departing, Malachi looked back at the two with his usual relaxed expression, however behind his seemingly simple smile was a devilish expression. "Our paradise, will be the Pros Hell."


	9. Friends

Chapter 9: Friends

It was a bright and clear morning for the first day of school at Sanctuary High. The birds were singing, a gentle breeze kept things cool, and most of the new students were all walking proudly toward the entrance. All of these things pleased Mother Nature as she decided to finally head back inside to speak with her husband. Upon entering his office, Mother Nature could see Arthur sitting at his desk overlooking some documents, quickly looking upwards to smile warmly at his wife.

She wore her hero outfit, a green flowery gown that was just brimming with tiny plant life, which also complimented her incredibly long light green hair. As usual her eyes were gently shut, a sweet smile permanently on her face, only today it seemed especially wide.

"You seem happy."

She laughed joyfully as she gracefully strided across the room to look out the window. "How could I not be? Those children are our bright future, the seeds that will one day bloom into wonderful guardians of peace. Despite the attack at the entrance exam, they all still move forward with their heads held high."

Arthur set aside the papers and rose from his seat, moving to wrap his arms around his loving spouse. "You always get so emotional when new students come in and when old ones graduate."

She chuckled and leaned into his embrace, "I know, my heart just soars looking at all these bright students on the path to becoming heroes. Can you blame me though? At one time, this city was rampant with criminal activity, and Pro Heroes were hailed as the bravest or the most foolish among us. We were both still children when things were finally starting to turn around, and then later on when All Might became the Symbol of Peace, it finalized that this city was finally free from the tyranny of villains." She gazed at the window to see the reflections of her love and herself. The people reflected upon glass of the window seemed much older than they did a few years ago. "Even though we may wither and die, we spread the seeds that will grow and take our place."

Overlooking her rather morbid yet hopeful comment, Arthur reassured her, "You and I still have quite a few years ahead of us as Pros before we can think about that my dear."

Still wondering what the future would hold for them and their students, the two Pros continued to on-look what would be the future champions of justice of Corasu city.

One of these students was Tsuneo, who kept making sure his black and white school uniform was in order as he approached the classroom that would be filled with nineteen other first years. Nineteen students who did better than him on the entrance exam. One of which could be Kimiko. This was because, to Tsuneo's surprise, your rank doesn't determine whether you're in Class A or Class B. Tsuneo assumed that they'd place the top twenty in one class while placing the rest in the other class, but apparently they just mix up the forty students in order not to make the rank 21-40 students feel inferior.

" _But what are the odds of Kimiko and I ending up in a class together?"_ Tsueno pondered as he decided to bite the bullet and open the door to his class. "….You've got to be kidding me…" he said under his breath in disbelief.

There sitting at the first desk next to the window was none other than Kimiko herself. She looked rather annoyed having to be in earshot of the very loud Kenichi shouting at a snake eyed boy whom Tsuneo didn't recognize.

"I still can't believe I was ranked 4th! How'd a loser like you get 2nd place anyway!?" Kenichi growled to the calm boy sitting resigned in his desk.

"Because I actually acted like a hero and have skill. I noticed all of your points were in the battle category," he readjusted his glasses, an unimpressed look on his face, "you do realize there's more to being a hero than fighting villains right?"

"Pffft, yeah okay," Kenichi mocked.

" _2_ _nd_ _place? So that guy must be Mirou Hon. He looks serious…"_ Tsuneo observed.

"Hey, isn't that the guy you said helped fight off the villains?"

Tsuneo turned to see his acquaintance from the other day, Hisa, and it seemed the question came from the short green haired girl next to her. The pink haired girl waved to Tsuneo, as she approached. "Hey Tsuneo, this is my friend Toki, we were just talking about what happened at the exam."

"That's right, Hisa told me there was a fire villain in your section. You guys got lucky he didn't roast you alive," Toki stated.

Kenichi, overhearing the short girl, walked over to the three and dismissed the claim, "Nah, luck had nothing to do with it. The guy was a total amateur, I could tell. If his bird friend didn't come along we probably could have beaten that guy ourselves!" he cheered triumphantly to Hisa.

"Oh by the way, thanks for helping me out you two," Tsuneo said, giving a thumbs up to the pink haired girl and the white haired boy.

"Not a problem," Hisa said with a wink.

"Eh, I owed you one after you lent me a hand," Kenichi replied.

The sound of the bell brought everyone's conversations to a halt as they all made their way to their assigned seats. Tsuneo took his place right behind the first seat next to the window. Right behind Kimiko… To his thankfulness however, Hisa was assigned to the seat next to him so he would at least have some pleasant company. Despite making it into the hero course, Tsuneo still couldn't shake the feeling like he wasn't exactly on par with those around him. After all, the 1st rank, 2nd rank, and 4th rank were in the same class as him, and possibly even more from the top ten.

"Hey Hisa, what rank were you on the practical exam?" the boy asked his desk neighbor.

"Me? I was rank 37, why?"

The boy breathed a sigh of relief, "Nothing, it's just nice to know I'm not completely surrounded by top dogs."

Hisa rolled her eyes and waved her hand. "Rank doesn't matter, what matters is what we do from here. Let's do our best to be great Pros!" she finished with a raised fist.

While appreciating the small pep talk from his classmate, Tsuneo was startled as the door suddenly slid open with a loud thud as Mr. Action barreled into the room.

"Greetings children!" he back-flipped onto the podium, twirling multiple times before coming to a stop and pointing at the class. "Tis I! Your homeroom teacher, Mr. Action!" his name appeared in bright flashing letters upon his screen. Ignoring the shocked/confused faces of his students, Mr. Action carried on with his bombastic entrance. After hopping down from the podium he announced, "Silence children! I am now going to begin class."

"This guy…seriously?" Kenichi mumbled with his arms crossed.

Mr. Action was immediately in front of Kenichi's desk (which was closest to the door) and once there the Pro karate chopped the boy's desk with rapid fire speed, breaking the thing in two. "No words boy! Only silence!"

"What the Hell man!?" Kenichi barked in shock.

Before Action could respond, he spied a hand raised toward the back of the class.

"Yes, Shun?"

The boy with long sky blue hair lowered his hand as he cautiously began to speak to the hyperactive teacher, "Um, Mr. Action-"

"Please, Mr. Action was my father! You kids can just call me Mr. Action!" the metallic man corrected.

"Okay? Mr. Action, is it okay for you to break school property like that?"

Money signs bounced on Mr. Action's screen face. "But of course! It's coming out of my paycheck afterall." Doing a 180, Mr. Action rushed back behind the podium to address the class. "Now then my dear students, it's time we got started! Today is your first real step to becoming Pro Heroes! So show me what you've all got!"

Students in the class either looked on nervously, showed some sign of enthusiasm, or seemed rather annoyed by the boisterous teacher. Tsuneo, despite everything that had happened to him these past few days, was pretty excited to finally learn how to become a Pro.

* * *

A few more days had passed and only one day was left until the attack on U.A. Unfortunately for us, Libra had found out most of us were still going along with the plan, despite him forbidding us to. He was furious, he tried once again to stop us from going through with the plan, but we were already dead set on going. Since then he's been reclusive, much to the dismay of Gorou and I. Reina just seemed dissatisfied that he wouldn't be attending.

I was in my room sitting on my bed; petting Shade, who was curled up next to me, as I looked over some of the family photos I had brought with me. The conversation I had with Rorschach the other day made me remember that I left what little friends and family I had behind. I wasn't homesick per-say, but after the attack on Sanctuary High, it made me realize just what kind of a life I was going to lead from now on. But that wouldn't stop me. I won't stop until I fix this complacent society.

While I was thinking about all these things, I almost didn't notice Reina lean in through the doorway. "Hey Akio, when you're not busy come to the living room. Got a favor to ask you."

After putting away the photos, I made my way to the living room to see what Reina wanted. Turns out she wasn't ready to give up on Libra yet.

"You want me to talk to him?"

"Yeah, I already tried, but you saw how that turned out," Reina sighed with disappointment, hands out nonchalantly while shaking her head from side to side.

"But, why me? You two are partners, so if you couldn't convince him how could I?" I questioned.

"Akio, he likes you more than he lets on. He's just a little hesitant to go along with this plan because he doesn't know the League of Villains."

"And you do?"

"Well…no, but I know Giran, and if he trusts them then so do I."

"Fair enough."

"Anyway, just try to talk Li into it. Go on, give it a go! I believe in you!" she said in a clearly overacted, almost mocking, cheer.

So I drowned out Reina's cheering, which continued until I was out of sight of her, and went straight to Libra's room. Yet again I found myself outside his room needing to talk to him about an important matter, but unlike last time, I actually knocked on his door to get his attention.

"Who is it?"

However unlike last time, Libra didn't come to the door, and instead shouted from within his room.

"Uh, it's Akio," I replied awkwardly.

"What do you need Akio?" he shouted through the door.

"Oh well….I came by to see if you'd reconsider-"

"Reina sent you didn't she?"

His tone sounded more like it was a fact he was confirming rather than an actual question, so I answered back with a, "…..yeah."

I heard him let out a groan, followed by the sound of him shuffling around. "One second." A moment or so later the door opened, Libra stood in the threshold, clothed rather normally except for his usual mask. "Come in."

I walked in and pulled out Libra's desk chair to sit in, while he just leaned against the wall near his bed. We stared at each other in silence clearly waiting to see who'd speak first, which ended up being me. "Libra, why don't you want to go on this mission?"

"We've already been over this. I don't want to put our team at risk for some group we know nothing about, especially when said group is trying to go after the number one Pro Hero."

"But isn't that what we're doing technically?"

Libra immediately seemed to get offended and huffed, "No! Well….okay yes, technically that was something we were going to have to do eventually, but still! My point is, going after All Might this is early is too great a risk."

"I understand how you feel, but think about it like this; if this League of Villains actually does end up killing All Might, shouldn't we have them as allies? And I mean, isn't that what The Syndicate is all about? Unifying villains?" I explained to him.

Libra was pacing around with his eyes to the floor. "I would gladly work with them, but it's the fact that they're already gunning for All Might that makes them questionable."

"Libra, you know I trust you right?"

He seemed confused as to why I said that, responding with, "Well, yes I would hope you trust me."

I stood up and looked him dead in the eyes, my tone being as earnest as it could be, "Then I want you to trust me and Reina the way we trust you. We need all the allies we can get, and if these guys honestly think they can kill All Might then we're going to need them. If we help them with this, whether we succeed or fail, we'll build trust with these guys and they might help us in the future. Isn't that worth the risk?"

Libra looked at me dumbfounded, turning away quickly pondering everything I had told him. He paced around a little more until he faced me once more, now with his usual calm commanding aura. "You…have a point Akio. Perhaps we can make this work." He stroked his chin while thinking. "Yes, I will help, but under one condition."

* * *

"What do you mean I can't meet them!?" Libra shouted in outrage to Reina.

"Li, it's the day before the attack, they're probably busy. Not to mention I'd still need Giran to set up a meeting."

 _"So much for that one condition..."_ I thought while staring at the irritated Libra.

Libra grumbled, "Fine, but when this business is done with, no matter what happens; I want to meet with these people face to face."

"I'm sure I can set something up." Reina then rose from her chair and leaned toward Libra with a smile. "So you're defiantly coming, riiiight?"

Libra pushed her away and scoffed, "Yes, of course I'll be attending."

Gorou laughed from the kitchen, "My my, Akio managed to convince him after all."

Hearing that, Libra corrected, "Ha! Hardly! I merely came to realize that they'd need my help on this mission. As leader of The Syndicate, how could I not help with this important task?"

"Well someone changed their tune rather quickly…" Reina whispered.

The day went on relatively normal, Libra got the details from Reina on how the attack was going to work, while the rest of us just sort of did our own thing. Until around the usual time we had dinner, we found out that Gorou and Rorschach had prepared something special for us. A very decently sized array of foods that looked quite delicious.

"What's all this?" Libra questioned the two.

Gorou stood proud in his kitchen apron. "Well since Rorschach and I won't be attending tomorrow's operation, we decided at the very least we could provide you with a delicious dinner!"

Crimson nodded and laughed, "Yeah, nothing like one last supper before we all bite the dust fighting All Might tomorrow!"

Cleric slapped his shoulder lightly. "Don't even joke like that!"

He chuckled in response, "Okay okay! Sorry!"

"Wow, this looks delicious you guys!" Reina complimented the two.

"It was nothing," Rorschach said, clearly flattered.

Habrok coughed, "So, can we eat?"

"But of course, dig in everyone!" Gorou cheered.

And so we did just as he said and began helping ourselves to the food. Gorou looked absolutely pleased that everyone was enjoying the food he and Rorschach had prepared for them. Thinking about it, this was the first time all of us had actually come together to share a meal. Sure we ate with each other sometimes, but that'd only be a couple of us, never all of us eating at the same time. And I gotta say I was enjoying sitting around with everyone, chatting idly as we ate.

"Oi Libra, how the fuck are you even eating?" Crimson asked with an accusatory look.

"Pardon?"

"You're still wearing your mask, and yet every time I look back over to you, more of your food is gone!"

Libra stared at him in silence for a long while before replying, "I've had practice."

"What does that even… whatever."

"Are you enjoying your meal Habrok?" Cleric asked to the bird man, who still wore his usual stern expression.

He turned his head to look her dead in the eyes. "It's delicious."

"That's good to hear."

"Tastes better than the blood of my enemies."

She continued to stare back at him with a shocked look before returning to her own meal.

After finishing our dinner, to my surprise Crimson wanted to do something with everyone.

"Poker?" Gorou echoed Crimson's suggestion.

Crimson played with his deck of cards as he went to set up the game at the coffee table in front of the couch. "Yeah, why not? Haven't played in a while and we're all together right now anyway, so why not right?"

"I could use a break from work," Reina yawned while stretching.

"Oooh, are we betting?" Rorschach asked with great interest.

"Don't really got the cash for that, so how about instead the winner gets something," Crimson suggested.

"I shall play simply to crush your spirit," Habrok replied, pulling up a chair near the table.

"Oh yeah? We'll see about that! Whether it's fighting or poker, I'll still kick your ass."

I didn't want to put a damper on the mood but when I came to the table to sit down I had to let them know that; "I actually don't know how to play poker."

Crimson rolled his eyes. "Why am I not surprised."

Reina just laughed and patted the spot next her, "Just come sit here Akio, I can teach you how to play real quick."

"Oh I wouldn't do that Akio," Gorou warned from across the table, "if she still plays like she did when we were younger, then she is most definitely still a cheater."

"Pffft, I only cheated because you're too easy to trick."

So after Reina explained to me how the game works, and giving me a brief demonstration, I quickly grasped how to play. The game was off to a pretty friendly and competitive start, but that didn't seem to last too long. As time went on, Crimson got more and more outraged about his luck with the game.

"Damn it! How am I losing this badly!?"

Habrok, who had been losing as equally bad, concurred, "I must confess this is not going as planned…. Libra's poker face is just too good."

"What do you mean!? He's wearing a mask! In fact, I say that gives him an unfair advantage over the rest of us," Crimson shouted while pointing at the calculated Libra, who was surrounded by his winnings made mostly from Crimson and Habrok.

"Reina has been doing fairly well too it would seem," Rorschach pointed out.

Reina laced her hands together behind her head and smiled smugly. "What can I say? I know how to play the game," she then patted me on the back, "and Akio here is a natural," she said, offering me some friendly encouragement.

The game carried on for a bit longer; ending in Crimson throwing his cards up into the air.

"Alright I'm done, this is bullshit." Crimson got up from the table and briskly made his way to his room, most likely heading to bed. Needless to say, Cleric was soon up and right behind him, the two leaving the game together.

Habrok threw down his cards. "I believe it is time for me to turn in as well. We'll need rest for tomorrows trials."

"He's right," Gorou agreed, stretching as he rose to his feet. "You two should get some rest for tomorrow," which was directed towards Libra and I.

Libra simply nodded and exited the living room. Rorschach, the winner of our game, seemed distraught. "Wait a minute, I won the game, so what's my reward?"

"How about a new hideout," Gorou placed his hands on his hips, giving an accusatory look to his sister, "you know, that thing Reina still hasn't found us."

"Good night to you too brother!" Reina called back as she dragged me out of the room.

"I can't believe you lost," I said dejectedly to my partner in crime.

Reina sighed in disappointment, "I know right, I was cheating the whole time, and in the end it was wasted effort. Thanks for not ratting me out by the way." She yawned and shuffled off to go take a nap. "You should get some sleep Akio. Tomorrow's a big day after all."

I went to my room and crawled into my makeshift bed, Shade soon curling up beside me to take a nap of his own. Despite what the next day would bring, I was glad that I got to spend some time with Libra and the others before we had to deal with the daunting task ahead.

* * *

During that night, another group of villains were coming together.

In a dilapidated church on the outskirts of town, Malachi meets with his apostles. The first to arrive days ago was the young woman in a dark green military patrol cap, her long flowing brunette hair extending from under the cap, reaching her lower back. Her clothes were of a similar shade of green, touches of color coming from her brown bomber jacket and knee high black combat boots. She was quite well built and a little taller than the average woman, her lips curled up into a smug smile and her narrowed hazel eyes portrayed her devious nature.

"Levi!" Malachi shouted to get her attention. The lanky man sauntered over to the woman hanging around the altar. "When you go out to meet your suppliers, be sure to spread the good word. There's plenty of lost sheep in this town, they just need to hear our call."

She giggled and twirled around Malachi, "Of course boss, I thought that went without saying? What good will all our equipment do if we don't have anyone to use them, right?"

"Thank you sister, the goddess appreciates your donations," he said with a wink whilst tracing his fingers around an old dusty offering plate.

The sound of the front door being kicked open drew Malachis attention, however he was not concerned in the slightest once he saw it was nothing more than another one of the few faithful to the goddess.

"Thaddaeus, buddy! You finally made it back!" Malachi swiftly moved to the entrance to meet with his follower.

The man dubbed Thaddaeus who had arrived a day later than Levi, was the same as ever; around Malachi's height, strong, long wild dark brown hair with white streaks, ferocious black irises accompanied by a grin revealing a full set of sharp teeth.

"Finally? I wasn't gone that long." Thaddaeus had a chain in his hand; tugging on it slightly as he entered the church. The other end of the chain was tied around the neck of an odd crouching man with a burlap sack on his head. Noticing the confused look on his friend's face, Thaddaeus explained, "Oh yeah, I went back to my old place and grabbed my guard dog."

"Guard dog?"

"Yeah, this guy's a real crazy bastard! Found him while out on an excursion to the more rundown part of town. He's strong and a total lunatic, great when I needed to give my guests a scare! Or have one of their limbs torn off."

Malachi, with a slight bit of caution, stepped around his friend and crouched to get a better look at the strange 'guard dog'. Surprisingly, upon noticing Malachi's closeness, the man shuffled back; shaking nervously. "Guard dog huh?"

"Like I said, he's off his rocker, so don't underestimate him. He can be lethal when he wants to be, trust me, there's a reason I got him chained up."

Malachi then turned his attention back to the poor unfortunate soul. The burlap sack he wore on his head had a dirty crudely attached horizontal zipper placed where the man's mouth would be, and from behind that zipper he could hear a faint muttering. "N-no more… no no…n-n-no more corpses…no m-more buzzing! No no no…no maggots…n-no c-c-corpses…"

Malachi shook his head with pity, but quickly put on a smile to welcome him into the fold. After all, all are welcome in the goddess's family. "What's your name man?"

"P-please…help…m-m-my s-sister…. Help help help!"

"That's a question he's never answered. So I just named him Beelzebul." Malachi raised an eyebrow at the odd name choice, something Thaddaeus noticed and addressed with a knowing smile, "Trust me, it'll make sense later."

"Beelzebul, relax man, you're with friends now," Malachi spoke softly to the shaking man.

"F-friends?"

"That's right, we're all just like you. Scared and lost souls just trying to make the world a better place." Malachi inched closer, and continued to question him in a soothing voice, "What happened to your sister?"

The man was no longer crouching and had collapsed onto his knees as he continued to shake like a leaf. "Pros fighting p-person…pros q-quirk accident…it's dark…so dark…no w-w-way out! Please! Help her!" The man then began whimpering, "No one's coming… p-please help…where are the h-heroes…"

"Say no more friend, I understand." Malachi reached out a hand and patted the man's shoulder, who tensed in response. "The Pros have wronged you, but don't worry, you're not alone. Help us kill them, put an end to the ones who've harmed you and your family."

"N-no! K-killing is….killing is…Pros…I...no no….no more corpses!"

Even at this point Malachi knew he was pushing his luck as he got even closer to the unstable individual, and wrapped an arm around him, soothing him, "Shhh, it's okay. I know killing is wrong, but I'm afraid it's a sin we must bear. For the sake of your sister."

"Bear the sin...For sister?" the man repeated, tilting his head towards Malachi.

"Yes. Careless Pros killed your sister, so their deaths are justified."

"J-justified…" the man repeated while nodding.

"But it shouldn't just stop there right? All pros are just as bad as the ones that got your sister killed, it's the sad truth."

The man was beginning to steady himself, his muttering replaced by ragged breathing.

"Work alongside us, and we can rid the world of these 'heroes'." Malachi guided the man to face him, staring where his eyes would have been visible without the sack hood, and continued, "You wouldn't want someone else's poor sister or brother to get killed by a pro, would you?" Malachi finished by undoing the chain around the heavy breathing man's neck, the chain falling to the floor with a clank. The vagrant then got to his feet and offered a hand to the man still kneeling on the dirty church floor. Beelzebul reached out slowly with a shaky hand that eventually gripped Malachi's, and was soon pulled up onto his feet. Malachi finished by giving the man a brief hug and pat on the shoulder, whispering, "Heroes are a blight on our society, we don't need them. We're your friends, we'll help you set things right."

"No more…heroes…no more…death…set things right..."

Beelzebul then shambled off to a pew near the altar, curling up in a ball and continuing to mutter to himself.

"Thaddaeus, keep an eye on him, if he gets out of hand don't hesitate to put him in the ground," Malachi ordered.

Thaddaeus followed behind his comrade. "Yeah of course, but what was with that whole spiel? I mean he's still pretty unpredictable, but I've gotten him to follow my orders well enough."

Malachi laughed uproariously, "Thaddaeus, it's simple! A man forced to fight for a cause will hesitate, question himself, deny orders. But a man who feels accepted, wanted, and loved, well those are the ones who are willing to die for our cause. For our goddess."

"Speaking of dying for the cause, where's Simon? Wasn't he coming too?"

"Yeah, he said something about having to go tie up some loose ends or something. Anyway, I'm gonna need you to hold down the fort tomorrow. I'm off to go pay a visit to some potential new allies."

"Ugh, I hate all this waiting! We gotta hurry up and gather the flock man, I'm eager to get back out there and raise some hell!"

Still making his way to exit the church to get some fresh air, Malachi glanced back with a grin, "Patience brother, we won't have to wait too long." The two separated, Malachi stepped out into the cool night air; thinking back to the night he had failed his goddess. Looking to the right he could see the city lights not too far in the distance. "Ah, my dear sweet lady Morrigan," he clasped his hands together, "once we gather your followers and enact vengeance on this worthless city, I swear I will come to free you."

* * *

It was the next morning and all of us were gathered in the living room. Libra, Crimson, Habrok, and I stood before the others as we waited for Reina to get the message from the League. Cleric stole a quick kiss from Crimson and warned, "You better come back safe."

"No promises on that front," he replied with a smirk.

She looked at him downtrodden, as she gently took his hands into hers, "At least come back in one piece."

"You got it."

"Akio." I looked back to see Habrok with his arms crossed, gazing at me with a critical eye as he asked, "Are you ready for this? Once again you and I will work alongside each other, so can I trust you to watch my back on this hunt?"

I nodded, "Of course. You can count on me this time."

"Good," is all he said, with a hopeful look on his face.

A buzzing sound drew all of our attention to Reina's phone, which she was now examining, her eyes brightened. "It's time everyone, you guys ready?"

"Hell yeah!" cheered Crimson.

"Ready as I'll ever be," responded Libra.

I gave a nod of affirmation.

Looking back down to her phone, Reina quickly typed something out, and shortly afterward a swirling black portal opened in our living room. "Good luck guys. If this works, it'll lead to a bright future for all villains."

Without a moment to loose, Libra signaled for us to follow as he marched confidently through the portal, the three of us followed him. Crimson gripped his gauntlets to make sure they were on nice and tight, Habrok extended his talons, and I donned my mask. Once the four of us had exited the portal, I looked around to see we were alongside countless other villains, more of which continued to exit from the portal behind us to form an even larger mob. The building was exactly how Reina had described it, a large dome split up into zones meant to simulate disasters.

Crimson was already cracking his neck side to side in anticipation. "Heh, look at all those kids up there, they're scared shitless! Oh this is gonna be fun!"

I looked towards the top of the stairs before us, spotting a group of U.A. students behind a man with long black hair, along with a person in some sort of astronaut outfit. Libra grumbled, "13 and Eraserhead huh? Annoying, but they can be dealt with easily enough."

Habrok examined the group in the distance with his superior eyesight and didn't seem pleased by what he saw. "Hmm, I don't see him."

Before I could ask what he meant, I noticed something large out of the corner of my eye. Looking back I saw who Reina had said would be the leader of this operation, a man called Shigaraki. The many hands gripping his body certainly matched the description from Reina, who was informed by Giran. But next to him stood a large hulking bird man, its bulging eyes and exposed brain were…unsettling.

"Come Akio, we must get into position," Habrok called out to me as he unfurled his wings and was already off to our designated zone.

I quickly got moving to keep up with my speedy partner.

Libra watched as his pupil ran off to fulfill his role in the operation, Crimson observed as well and sneered, "You think that little shit is actually going to help out this time?"

"He'll do what is needed, that I am certain of." Looking back to see the group of villains walking forward, he then beckoned Crimson as he marched forward, "Come on, we've got work to do."

* * *

 **So this chapter took longer than expected. I was actually going to post this much earlier, but my week ended up way more busy than I planned. I was actually planning to just get straight into the USJ attack, but I wanted prep things a little more before we got into that. Anyway, so next chapter will be the first real interaction with the canon characters from MHA, so here's hoping it works out well. Thanks again for reading, and I hope you continue to enjoy.**


	10. USJ

Chapter 10: USJ

Just as Libra had expected from a Pro Hero, Eraserhead's hair was standing upward and he had already sprang into action, making quick work of the villains at the front of the group. Crimson and Libra continued to stay toward the back of the mob, not rushing into the fray; opting to wait for a more appropriate moment to move in to strike.

Crimson took a quick look around as the two continued to march forward. "Not seeing All Might anywhere," he stated while tilting his sunglasses downward and turning his head side to side, "maybe he's late?"

"That Shigaraki fellow seemed rather upset as well," Libra said while glancing back at the man covered in hands. "Nonetheless, this can still work. Killing two Pros and a group of U.A. students will still have an impact."

In preparation, Crimson already began to let small streams of blood trickle down his fists. "Right, so shall we get down to business?"

Libra's dark green eyes stared daggers toward the Pro, as he responded with a delighted, "Of course."

* * *

Habrok and I quickly arrived to our designated area, albeit a little later than the other villains. We were at what appeared to be a simulated landslide, so I was momentarily confused when I saw the rocky ground covered in a layer of ice. But I soon saw that the cause was none other than a U.A. student; a boy with half of his hair fiery red and the other half white as snow, he also had a very noticeable burn around one of his eyes. I couldn't help but gasp slightly when I saw that all of the other villains assigned to our zone had been incapacitated.

" _No way…he took them all out by himself…"_ I shouldn't have been so surprised, I mean this is a U.A. student we're talking about.

The student had been walking toward one of the frozen over villains, but came to a halt when he noticed me. We both just stared back at one another, although I think he was just temporarily confused that someone his age would be a villain, while I on the other hand had to finally break through my hesitation and potentially maim or kill an innocent person. And I had to do it quick on account of the boy placing one foot forward and turning the ground before him into ice, ice that was quickly making its way towards me.

My body pretty much moved on its own at that point, I stretched my hand forward drawing in what natural light was let into the dome. Within a second my palm caught fire, and I let loose a torrent of flames towards the oncoming ice, which was thankfully enough to stop it. The boy seemed momentarily surprised; my guess is that he didn't expect my Quirk would be able to counter his so perfectly. Although he was not deterred in the slightest, his face contorting into one of annoyance as he simply readjusted himself and blasted a wall of ice toward me.

This time I had to spew a heavy jet of fire from both of my hands in order to not get frozen by the incoming attack. My fire barely chewed and melted away a path for me within the barrage of ice which had chilled and frozen the ground around me, so close that I could feel a biting chill in the air.

" _Holy crap that was close! My fire barely managed to melt through that last attack! And here I was worried about HIM getting hurt…"_

To my dismay I could already see him walking toward me gearing up for another attack, but thankfully I had some backup to divert his attention.

Letting out a primal hawk call, Habrok came rushing downward from the air, his talons outstretched to rip into the boy's flesh. However, the boy was not only able to roll out of the way, but was also able to send a large barrage of ice toward the low flying Habrok.

He weaved his way through the air around the jagged chunks of ice, calling out to me, "Helios! Free our comrades!"

He was right, our allies were all still frozen in place, but could be freed with a little heat! I reduced the fire in my palms to a nice simple flame and quickly made my way over to some of the frozen villains.

I looked over to check and see if I was still good to go, and I was thanks to Habrok keeping the boy busy for the time being. I held my hands over the ice restraining the other villains and got to work freeing them as fast as I could. "It's ok, I got you. Let's get back in the action!" I reassured my newly freed comrades. The thing is though, some villains are braver than others… Once free, half of them ran off too afraid to fight the boy, while the other half was eager for revenge and were rushing toward the U.A. student.

The boy wasn't fazed by his new attackers at all; giving them a cold stare, he dealt with them just as quickly as he had done the first time. It still shocked me that he had just stopped a group of villains dead in their tracks and yet he just seemed annoyed with us, which means he still didn't see us as much of a threat. The group's sacrifice was not in vain however, because Habrok dived toward our target with incredible speed, using his talons to grab the boy by the shoulders and hoist him into the air, soaring upward. I tried my best to focus on the two gliding through the air, but instead it was what I had heard that had caught my attention.

Habrok cried in anger when he felt the bone chilling ice snake its way up his arm and begin to latch onto one of his wings. Out of viciousness or reflexes, Habrok quickly dropped the boy. No longing focusing on the falling student, I quickly ran to where Habrok would soon be landing, as he was now descending quickly to the ground since one of his wings was frozen over with ice. The hawk man tumbled and rolled across the rocky terrain, and soon after, got onto his knees while grunting in pain, "Helios, get over here and unfreeze me!"

Snapping out of my daze I rushed over, "Right!" Just like before I used my flames to thaw the ice coating Habrok's body. Once the ice on his wing had mostly melted away, he was able to stretch and flap his wing in order to shake the remainder of it off.

"So damn cold!" Habrok complained, still stretching his previously frozen wing.

"Hey Habrok, what happened to that kid?" I asked while cautiously looking around for him.

"Not sure, just hoping that fall shattered his bones," Habrok spat out vehemently.

I was all for killing in order to help the group achieve our goals, but I still wasn't quite used to the blunt way Habrok and Crimson could be about it sometimes.

Habrok let out a breath as he rose to his feet and steadied himself. "But that's just wishful thinking. That dog was well trained; a simple fall would be unlikely to stop him."

"So what's the plan now?"

"We'd best regroup with the rest of the pack, they could use our aid."

"Sounds good. Oh, but what about these guys?" I asked while jutting a thumb over to our frozen backup.

"We have no time for common mongrels like them Helios, we've completed our task, now we must head back," he said sternly and with a bit of derision toward the men still frozen in place.

It's true that it wouldn't be wise to waste time, but I knew Habrok probably just thought lesser of those villains for not being able to even help us beyond being distractions. I was tempted to stick around to help them, but in a way I knew Habrok was right, these guys were mongrels; common thugs with no real ambition to change things.

Thus I nodded to the towering man, "That's fair. Alright, let's get moving."

He seemed rather pleased to hear that and led the way back to the rest of our team.

While Habrok and I had been busy dealing with that student, Libra and Crimson had been dealing with a much tougher opponent.

* * *

The duo ran alongside eachother as they approached the Pro. "Keep him busy," Libra commanded.

Crimson nodded, already getting an idea of what Libra wanted to do. Letting some more blood drip from his hand, Crimson splattered the familiar red liquid on the ground in a shaky line intending to set off a ranged explosion to blast rocky debris toward the Pro. The villain's fist was but mere inches away from the drying blood on the ground when a white cloth wrapped around his wrist and yanked him forward. Crimson readied his other fist, still wet with blood, to punch the Pro he was now nearing. Crimson's fist made a hard impact against the Pro's open palm, but rather than ending in a glorious bloody explosion like he expected, Eraserhead simply clutched down on the villain's bloodied fist and delivered a hard knee into Crimson's stomach.

Crimson wheezed as he was then slammed onto the floor, Eraserhead having to focus on some other villains for a brief few seconds. _"Right, this guy can erase Quirks or something."_ Still busy with some other miscreants, Crimson rushed in with fresh blood, eager to land a hit on the preoccupied Pro. Eraserhead opted to use his scarf to grab and disarm the other villains rushing him, whilst also dodging Crimson's punches.

"Not good at handling big brawls like this are you Eraserhead?" a voice uttered from behind the hero.

He felt fingers digging into his shoulder, but was unable to take his eyes off Crimson, so instead he slammed his elbow backwards in the hopes of dislodging his attacker. And the attacker did let go, however, involuntarily the Pro's hair came down and the villains standing before him were able to activate their Quirks. Breaking out of his momentary surprise, Eraserhead quickly disarmed and beat down a pair of incoming villains before turning his attention to his previous attacker, who was now chuckling.

"How does it feel to have the tables turned Eraserhead? Let's see how you handle being quirkless," Libra said while taunting the now weakened hero.

Quirkless or not, Eraserhead was a professional, and thus he pressed on just as he had before. The long haired man didn't have the luxury of disabling Quirks for the time being, so he instead focused on quickly dispatching the smaller villains first. In the meantime however, Crimson had laid out a few blood splatters on the ground with the goal blowing the hero apart in an explosion of blood and gore. With that joyous thought still envisioned in his mind Crimson began blasting apart the ground with dry blood, the air being filled with dust and rubble as the villain tried to kill the erasing hero.

The fighting had died down within the heavy cloud of dust with no clear sign of activity from the Pro. Crimson smiled like a maniac, "Rest in peace bitch, hope your corpse isn't too mangled for the funeral!"

Crimson's celebration was cut dreadfully short when two pieces of white cloth wrapped around both of his hands.

"What the fu-!?"

Within a second he was off his feet and swung to the side before being released; colliding with an oncoming group of thugs. Emerging from the diminishing dust cloud was a battered Eraserhead looking with disgust at the man who had just tried to kill him.

Libra grimaced as he marched once more toward the fray. "Three minutes left. Even with all this manpower this bastard continues to be a nuisance," Libra grumbled while drawing a combat knife from within his cloak.

The Pro looked back to see the white cloaked villain rushing in with a knife aimed for his throat. The long haired man easily maneuvered out of harms way, Libra also avoiding the counterattacks the hero threw at him.

"False heroes are bad enough as is, but ones who actually think they can pass on their twisted ways onto the next generation," Libra had a murderous look in his eyes, "It just makes me sick! I'll purge every last one of your kind until balance is restored!"

Eraserhead payed no heed to what the man said and simply passed it off as a villain's nonsensical babbling. The two continued to skirmish for a bit, until Eraserhead managed to finally disarm and beat down his assailant. Libra, still involuntarily clutching himself in pain, quickly moved back to catch his breath; thankful that some thugs came along to take his place.

" _Less than a minute left…not that it matters. He's clearly getting tired. As long as this cannon fodder keeps up for a bit longer, Crimson and I can take him down ourselves."_

Despite being somewhat sore, Crimson made his way over to his boss, but an explosion in the distance followed by some goons screaming and running away caught both of their attention.

Clearly getting more and more frustrated, Libra ordered, "Crimson, go and-"

Crimson was already readying his gauntlets with a malicious smirk, walking toward the explosion in the distance, calling back, "Way ahead of you."

Refocusing on the enemy at hand, Libra was disappointed to see that Eraserhead had regained his Quirk and didn't waste a second to use it on the reaming group of thugs surrounding him.

" _Hmm, not good. Maybe I can sneak around him and nullify his Quirk again? But he might be prepared for it this time…"_ Libra was still pondering what to do when he saw that the ringleader of this operation, Shigaraki himself, was running at the Pro. When the two collided it had seemed that Eraserhead had managed to get in a good hit on him using his elbow, but upon closer inspection Libra could see that Shigaraki had managed to catch the attack right before it hit him. A few seconds later and the Pro's long hair standing straight up; came down and hanged loose once more.

" _This is good, he should be blinking right now which means…"_

As if on cue, Shigaraki's Quirk activated, causing Libra to look on with interest. The cloth covering the hero's arm began to crumble as the skin covering his elbow began to crack and peel, revealing the red muscle beneath. With little but a grunt of pain, Eraserhead managed to escape the grasp of Shigaraki, but was once more met with an onslaught of minor villains. Of course, Libra watched all of this with delight; cautiously hanging back to be prepared to help the ringleader.

* * *

Crimson sprinted past multiple fleeing villains, looking at each with confusion and contempt. "The hell is wrong with all these pussies? Can't even handle a couple of fucking kids."

A large explosion rumbled from near the entrance to one of the simulated disaster areas. The source was a boy with spiky blonde hair sauntering forward from the smoke cloud of a fresh explosion; a shirtless boy with even spikier red hair followed behind him.

Crimson let out a long impressed whistle, "Wow kid, that's quite the Quirk you got there. Shame it's going to waste on a wannabe hero like you."

The boy had a wicked smile on his face and a murderous look in his eyes, which was something Crimson did not expect. "Shut it, just get out of the way and die!"

That statement made Crimson pause. _"This kid is trying to be a 'hero', right?"_ But nonetheless Crimson welcomed the boy's aggressive nature, after all, it was a nice change of pace from the usual self-righteous attitude he got from most of his opponents.

A slight cause for alarm appeared when the boy propelled himself forward with an explosion from his hands. Crimson, caught somewhat off-guard by his speed, moved more irrationally than usual, but still managed to dodge the explosion the boy had fired toward him once he had landed near the villain he wanted to blast away.

" _Damn! He can just fire off explosions whenever he wants, which means his Quirk has a slight edge over mine. But I can still outclass him with skill."_

However, the wannabe hero continued to be full of surprises. Crimson tried to beat down the raging boy with his bloodied knuckles, only for the hero in training to outmaneuver him using his explosions. And the kid didn't just have speed, he could dish out damage as well. Crimson soon found this out when he was caught off guard, an explosion to the side launching him off his feet and coming back down to land against the cold hard ground.

"Out of my way! I don't have time for shitty weak nobodies like you!" the boy shouted.

Still feeling the aching pain from hitting the ground, in addition to being blasted with an explosion, Crimson tried to push himself off the ground. Coughing as a look of rage spread across his face. _"Damn it! What the hell is wrong with me!? I can't even deal with one fucking kid?!"_

The explosive U.A. student continued to stomp forward, soon noticing his enemy was trying to get back up. Crimson's cracked and mangled sunglasses fell from his face as his dark red eyes stared angrily at the hero in training. Crimson shot up and made a mad dash at the boy in the hopes of getting in one good explosive punch on him before he could react. But react the boy did, simply ducking out of the way before using one hand to blast Crimson yet again. And just like before, he fell down onto the ground, this time unable to push himself back up.

The pain from Eraserhead, this kid, and draining his own blood, were all starting to take a toll on the man. _"This can't get any worse…"_ Crimson thought absently, loathing in self-hatred.

Suddenly the boy with red hair tackled his classmate to the ground. Crimson was confused for a split second until a large stream of fire sprayed past them; scorching the ground the two were standing on mere seconds ago.

" _Don't tell me…"_

* * *

I had missed the two U.A. students who were attacking Crimson, but that didn't matter, what mattered was getting him to safety. "Habrok, do you think you can carry both of us?" I yelled back to the bird man, who was already helping Crimson up.

"Get the hell out of the way!" the boy with an explosive Quirk shouted to what I assumed was his friend. He was already back on his feet; enraged.

I couldn't hesitate, I knew this guy was powerful so I couldn't waste a second thinking, I just needed to do it! And so with my hand still outstretched I let loose another wave of flesh roasting fire. The boy with red hair looked shocked and quickly got in front of his friend.

At this point Habrok had a limp and bruised Crimson in one of his arms as he shouted, "Of course I can carry both of you, how weak do you think I am? Get over here!"

Before running over to my ally I looked back to see what became of the red haired guy. To my honest surprise, rather than his flesh being burnt to a crisp, it was jagged and hard looking. He seemed fine for the most part, but the other U.A. student didn't seem to care; pushing his savior out of the way in a rage.

"Move it!"

"Hey Bakugo, you've got to be more careful man," his friend warned.

I quickly ran over to Habrok, who was already spreading his wings and getting off the ground. As his remaining free talons latched into my clothing and hoisted me up, I continued to spray fire toward the two pursuing students, and soon enough we were up in the air and away from them.

I looked over to the downtrodden Crimson, hearing a faint muttering under his breath, "I didn't need help…"

After flying for a moment or two, Habrok dived to the ground in a rather rough landing. Despite what he said, he must have had a least a little trouble holding onto both of us at once, I mean, Crimson is a grown man after all. The hawk man stretched his arms before helping Crimson onto his feet, letting the injured man lean on him for support.

"Come Helios, let's head back to Libra," Habrok stated.

"Right," I agreed as I fell in step alongside him.

While we were on our way to help out Crimson, I could hear quite bit of commotion in the distance, and it seemed like an explosion had happened at the entrance. Remembering this, I brought it up with the other two.

"Could that monster have been fighting someone?" I wondered. After all, it was the only thing present that I could think would be so powerful.

"Not sure, but we must hurry," Habrok replied; picking up the pace.

I soon found my answer as we came upon quite a scene. As we approached Libra and Shigaraki, the three of us all looked on in absolute bafflement at what lay before us.

Libra's mask couldn't hide the look of joy hidden underneath. "Good, you're all here. You're about to see history in the making."

"He's here…" I let out in a whisper.

There before us was The Symbol of Peace himself, All Might. But he wasn't standing tall and proud, smiling triumphantly like I had always seen him do on the news. No, he was sticking out of a warp gate created by the smoky figure called Kurogiri, and was in the clutches of Shigaraki's monster.

"Today, The Symbol of Peace will die," the words seemed to escape Libra's lips in an almost mystical tone, like he himself could hardly believe it.

We all watched on in anticipation as the warp gate around him began to slowly close. I just stood there motionless, my mouth agape behind my mask, watching the world's strongest hero about to be killed. But out of the corner of my eye I spotted a U.A. student with green hair rushing toward us with a look of worry on his face. I'd call him foolish for thinking he could actually help, but I know I'd probably do the same if I saw Libra in a similar predicament. Still, it didn't make his actions any less pointless.

Just as I suspected, the shadowy man Kurogiri appeared before the boy in order to stop him. I looked on with a faint amount of pity, _"_ _Sorry, but sometimes you just can't-"_

BOOM

"Move! You're in the way, Deku!"

The explosion and shout came from one of the students we had just ran into, who had apparently kept up with us and was here to ruin our plans. The boy had tackled the smoky man to the ground and was essentially holding him hostage. It didn't stop there however. A layer of ice quickly crept across the ground and then made its way to the leg of the bird monster, creeping its way up his arm and chest, turning that layer of his body into a chunk of ice. The source was, of course, the red and white haired guy Habrok and I had fought earlier.

Habrok set Crimson down, extending his talons as he looked furiously at the children. "This is what we get for being careless. This time I'll make sure to rip out their throats."

With the monster's muscles frozen solid, All Might was able to get loose from its grip, and was now at the boys side. As if we didn't have enough problems, that red haired guy with hard skin jumped in from out of nowhere and tried to attack Shigaraki. Our ringleader had managed to dodge in time, but still, now we had yet another person to deal with. We were all silent; our two groups staring back at one another.

"Not good," Libra muttered.

"What? Time to…cut our losses?" Crimson managed to heave out through his pain.

"No. Our friend over there," Libra gave a halfhearted point to Kurogiri, "is the only way we can get back to Corasu city. Like it or not, we're going to have to see this through."

Before Libra could instruct us on what to do, Shigaraki, in a rather calm tone, simply spoke one word, "Nomu."

The monstrous birdman heard the call and steadily pulled himself out of the warp gate, his frozen limbs cracking and falling apart. I looked on in confusion, which was immediately replaced with amazement as Nomu's limbs began to regenerate.

Crimson glanced up from where he was sitting on the ground and simply raised an eyebrow, "Huh, guess… we've still got a shot at this… after all?"

Libra seemed absolutely fascinated and observed the beast with keen interest while Shigaraki explained Nomu's capabilities to All Might. A most interesting point being that Nomu could take him on at 100%.

Shigaraki continued, "First, we need to get our gate back. Go, Nomu."

It was at this point I learned Nomu wasn't only strong, but fast too. It all seemed to have happened in a split second. That kid with the explosive Quirk was on top of Kurogiri, and then suddenly he was with the rest of the students. All Might had taken the attack from the beast. What was important however was that our ally who would provide us with an escape was now free once more.

A grunt to my side caused me to look over to Crimson, now staggering to his feet; fists raised.

"Crimson, you can't-" He was injured so I was trying to tell him to stay back, but Crimson being Crimson just yelled at me.

"Don't tell me what to do," he heaved, shaking his head to psych himself up, "I'm fine. I'm not some weak bitch like you seem to think I am."

"Hey I never said…"

I couldn't finish my sentence though, due to Shigaraki's voice refocusing my attention on our enemies. "Nomu, Kurogiri. Get him," the villain covered in hands ordered. Next he turned to us, continuing, "Make yourselves useful. Help me deal with the children."

Libra drew a blade from beneath his cloak and armed himself. Habrok stepped forward, his talons still out, "About time you asked." Holding back a groan of pain, Crimson knocked his knuckles together while walking toward the kids.

I looked at the four boys near All Might, observing their looks of anger and concern, the boy with green hair seemed especially emotional for some reason. None the less, no matter what they're thinking or feeling now doesn't matter to me. No, I need to be strong and see this through. If creating a future without false heroes costs a few lives then so be it. With my hands alight with fire, I followed behind the rest of the team, ready to do what was necessary.

All Might rushed toward us with great speed, only to be intercepted by Nomu. The two overwhelmingly powerful beings clashed, which caused a shockwave so powerful that it blew all of us back. Habrok, who had taken to the air when we made our attack, had been blown clean off course and slammed back down to the solid earth. The beaten and bruised Crimson was knocked back off his feet. As the two hulking men continued to trade blow after blow, the force they generated continued to blow us all back. Libra and I braced against that force alongside Shigaraki and Kurogiri.

"Fucking hell!" Crimson cried out while trying to get back onto his feet.

Habrok shielded himself with his wings as he got back up, bracing against the air blowing intensely against all of us. "There's no way we can even get close to them like this!" Habrok shouted to us.

I could only watch in a mixture of shock and awe as All Might pushed back Nomu. Their speed was unimaginable, their strength frightening, the overall raw power and skill seemed impossible. Worst of all, it seemed like All Might was exceeding Nomu in all these things.

Without even realizing it I had started unconsciously backing away, but I stopped when Libra gripped my shoulder. "Terrifying isn't it?" Libra said aloud, not taking his eyes off the fight, "The power that our greatest enemy possesses." Perhaps thinking I might crack under the pressure, Libra tightened his grip on me and said, "If balance is ever to be restored, we must eradicate this power from the world."

In response, I stood as confidently as I could alongside Libra; ready to see this through. The fight between All Might and Nomu carried on, All Might clearly leading the battle. Punch after punch, Nomu was knocked around and beaten down, the two of them destroying the ground beneath them as they fought. It all came to an end when All Might unleashed one last powerful hit on Nomu, the impact of which sent the bird monster soaring through the air, smashing through the dome itself, and then seeming to go further beyond that.

My jaw had dropped behind my mask when I took in such a sight. Habrok and Libra seemed to share my look, while Crimson just scoweled. "No way… I've always heard things and saw him on TV but…," Crimson couldn't help but feel a cold sweat run down his back while looking at the fearsome All Might, "seeing him in action in person, I get why villains have gone into hiding…"

Smoke billowed from where the world's greatest hero stood, and despite the seemingly intense fight he had gone through just seconds before, he turned to Shigaraki and us. "Now, villains… I'm sure we'd all like to end this as soon as possible."

Impossible. There's just no way. Even after all that, he was still ready to take us all on!? I looked to Libra and Shigaraki for guidance, but Libra was just glaring and seemed hesitant to move, while Shigaraki looked frustrated and just kept scratching at his neck. I'll admit, by this point I was terrified about what would come next. I mean, All Might defeated the seemingly invincible Nomu, and he's left our ringleader speechless. What could we hope to do at this point?

"What's wrong? You're not coming?" All Might called out, "Come and get me if you can." That last phrase was said with a murderous stare from the hero, his piercing blue eyes bore into all of us. "Well? What's wrong?"

" _It's like he's daring us to try and beat him! Just how confident is he!? No…no this has nothing to do with confidence… he just knows our power pales in comparison to his…"_ I thought nervously.

In the meantime, Shigaraki had been scratching his neck furiously and was understandably upset by the situation. Kurogiri leaned down to calm him, but also ended up calming me as well when he said, "Looking carefully, I see that he was definitely weakened from the damage of Nomu's attacks. Besides, the children appear to be frozen in fear." He then turned his luminous yellow eyes toward Libra and the rest of us as he continued, "We still have underlings who can be used."

"Underlings," Crimson scoffed in annoyance.

Ignoring him, Kurogiri turned his attention back towards All Might and carried on talking to Shigaraki. "There are likely only a few minutes left before reinforcements come. If you and I work together, we still have a chance of killing him."

Shigaraki probably only considers the four of us as cannon fodder, but Kurogiri had a point. If he really has weakened after that fight, then maybe we could all rush him and take him down. It seemed Shigaraki shared my sentiments.

"Yeah…that's right…we have no choice but to do it. I mean, we have the last boss right in front of our eyes," he muttered.

Libra let out a sharp quick whistle to grab our attention. "He's right. Killing All Might now would greatly accelerate our plans, so let's make sure it gets done by dealing with those brats." Some of the four students readied themselves when the saw Libra step up and point over to them. "Helios, take care of the plain looking one and that ice kid, Crimson help out if you can. Habrok, you and I will deal with the other two."

Before we could put our plan of attack into action however, Shigaraki and Kurogiri were already running at All Might, who for some reason just stood there waiting for them to strike. And then the unexpected happened. That plain looking kid with green hair was suddenly midair with a fist reeled back, aiming at Kurogiri.

"I didn't even see him move!" I couldn't help say in surprise.

Libra seemed perplexed by this as well.

Thankfully though, Kurogiri and Shigaraki were ready for him, the two worked together as the shadowy man opened a warp gate for Shigaraki to reach his hand through, ending up right in front of the boy's face.

" _Guess it's time to see what Shigaraki's Quirk is."_ Inch by inch, Shigaraki's hand was about to reach the boy's face, only a few seconds and it'd all be over for this unfortunate U.A. student. _"I do feel a little bad, but-"_

BANG

Blood spouted from Shigaraki's hand. It was obvious he had been shot. We all looked towards the entrance; all of us spotting an absolute nightmare. An entire group of Pros, all here to back up All Might.

"Fuck me! Libra, look man I really think it's time we got out of here!" Crimson shouted while quickly limping over to him.

Libra sighed, "Yeah. Come on."

We all dashed over to were Shigaraki and Kurogiri were. Shigaraki had been saying something when he was suddenly shot through the arms and legs. I couldn't help but stare at the copious blood that poured out from his wounds. In response to the bullets still flying toward us, Kurogiri shielded us with his large misty body. The black mist then began to wrap around Shigaraki's body spread out on the ground.

"Hey! Don't forget to get us out of here too!" Libra shouted up to the shadowy giant.

Kurogiri looked us over, trying to remember if we were anyone of importance. He seemed to remember something, but pressed for time he just gave us a short, "Very well." A gate opened right next to us, Habrok helped Crimson through, Libra entered while giving one last passing glance to Shigarki. I was the last to enter, my heart pounding as I leapt through the closing gate.

That was certainly…hectic.

* * *

After being transported back to the hideout, the four of us just sort of collapsed and took in deep breaths as we escaped from danger. Habrok set off fro the roof, Crimson was dealing with an incredibly worried Cleric, Libra was discussing the events with Gorou, and in the meantime I had been resting on the couch.

"You sure you're okay kiddo?" Reina asked again while looking me over.

I sat up on the couch, "Trust me, I'm fine. Libra and Crimson got it much worse than I did."

Speaking of which…

"Crimson is resting now," Cleric softly said entering the living room.

"Did you finally heal him?" Reina questioned.

She winced a little, "I did… but I had done it after he had gone to sleep...I know he's going to be mad when he wakes up, but I just couldn't leave him like that."

When we had arrived back at the hideout, Crimson was clearly about to collapse from blood loss and all the pain he went through, so Cleric wanted to heal him. However in response he just said, "No, this is my own damn fault! I was stupid, careless, and weak. I'm not going to let you go through pain for MY mistakes!" He didn't want to give her a slight chance of healing him, and thus brushed her off and shambled off to his room.

"He certainly is a stubborn one," Rorschach said from the recliner.

"He used to let me heal him a lot more when we were kids…" Cleric seemed to say more to herself than the rest of us.

I let out a long sigh, "I guess I shouldn't be surprised we failed… I should've known we weren't ready to go up against the world's strongest hero."

"A failure? Well that remains to be seen Akio," Reina said while smiling with a shrug of her shoulders. "I think we're on the League's good side now, at least somewhat. And I'm sure they can cook up something as deadly as Nomu again." She stretched her arms and settled onto the opposite end of the couch. "You know, all things considered, things are looking up for the future of villains."

Reina wasn't the only one to take notice of this however, both the villains and heroes of Corasu city took notice as well.

* * *

"Simon, please!" the rotund man pleaded; falling onto his knees, continuing to back away from his imposing former bodyguard.

The broad, tall, muscular, dark skinned villain towered over his cowardly employer. Crossing his arms, he looked down at the pathetic individual before him. "I warned you. I told you if my mistress ever calls on me, I will leave, and you will let me leave. No questions asked." Simon noticed he had some blood splattered on his shoulder, which he casually wiped off.

"I know, I know! But Simon I was just-gah!"

A stomp to the stomach shut the man up rather quick. "You had your goons try to kill me. Trash like you isn't worth salvation." He pressed his foot down even harder, the man beneath him wheezing in pain.

"Si-Simon! Please, I c-can give you more money! P-please just forgive me!"

Simon couldn't help but find it funny that this criminal that had acted like such a cutthroat badass was now on the floor pleading for one of his 'lowly grunts' to have mercy on him.

"The attack on Sanctuary High's entrance exam, my mistress's messenger returning, and now the attack on the USJ in Musutafu. It's all a sign that it's time for things to go back to the old ways. Which means I need to go fulfill my higher calling." Simon released the pressure he was putting on the gentleman beneath his foot; turning to exit the dimly lit office. Little light, but enough to do what he needed to do.

"Yeah…you're completely right…I'm sorry Simon, you've... done good work for me, it was wrong to-"

Simon's ex-employer would never get to finish that sentence. Multiple spikes black as night, pierced through the large man on the floor. The long dark spikes puncturing his heart as well as tearing through his flesh and organs. They then slowly retracted, growing shorter and shorter until they were flat on the floor, slithering their way back to Simon's shadow.

"Apology accepted."

Simon, his Quirk, **Shadow Spikes**. Extending from his shadow, Simon's spikes will creep along the ground as flat objects and can shoot upward becoming solid spikes. Said spikes can split apart or extend outward into additional spikes. Simon can either do many small spikes or just a few large ones, as doing both is difficult for him. Of course because his Quirk is reliant on his shadow, he is greatly disadvantaged in areas with little/no light.

Walking past the dead bodies of countless petty criminals, Simon exited the dirty old storehouse. "Time to go see what Malachi has planned."

* * *

During the afternoon a day after the USJ attack, some of the faculty of Sanctuary High gathered for a meeting to discuss the villain related activities that transpired over the past two weeks. More specifically, the Investigation Hero, Blackout, had gathered them there to discuss his findings. Arthur and Mother Nature sat side by side at the far end of the table, while Doctor Madhouse and Battering Ram sat across from each other on the sides of the table. The good doctor was idly tapping his fingers, desperately wanting a cigarette but decided against it on account of Mother Nature's distaste for tobacco. Battering Ram kept tapping his foot on the ground in impatience.

The four faculty member's attention was drawn to the door, a man with pitch black skin entering the room. Blackout wasn't wearing his usual getup that'd he wear out in the field, but rather, a neat and tidy grey suit with a grey tie to match. Despite his change in outfit, he still kept his semi-long dark purple hair loose and disheveled, a long patch hanged low and covered one of his void like blackish lavender eyes.

"Thanks for coming everyone," the hero greeted in a rather forced politeness, whilst placing some papers onto the table before him.

While Blackout was approaching the board he had set up with a spread of information attached to it, Doctor Madhouse corrected, "Well, technically this isn't _everyone_." Blackout turned back to stare at the doctor, who was now polishing his glasses as he casually followed up with, "I mean, just the four of us? Is there a reason for that?" the last part came off as somewhat accusatory.

"He has his reasons Madhouse," Arthur interjected from the end of the table. "Please Blackout, carry on."

"As I'm sure you're all aware by now, an off campus U.A. facility was attacked yesterday. The perpetrators were a group known as the League of Villains. There were dozens of villains in attendance, most of which were petty criminals not worthy of note; however there were some familiar faces among them." He pointed to the array of photographs on the board relating to the attack on Sanctuary High's entrance exam facility.

Arthur leaned forward, clearly perturbed, "The Syndicate?"

"Yes, more specifically I can confirm that their leader, Libra, was a participant of the attack from yesterday." Blackout paced as he theorized, "It's clear that the two are separate organizations from each other, but this leads to a more frightening conclusion."

Doctor Madhouse leaned back in his chair; arms crossed as he sighed out the answer, "An alliance."

"That's what we believe, yes. These two fledgling villain organizations could possibly be planning to team up. I assume that the fact that The Syndicate took part in this plan means they're trying to earn trust with them, or perhaps they're already working together and this was their first operation together."

"Doesn't matter which it is, the two of them working together is bad news either way," Battering Ram stated, holding back the anger and worry in his voice.

"I must address another topic," Blackout said to regather the groups attention. "There was talk of there being a possible traitor among U.A., someone who was helping the League."

"And what does that have to do with us?" Mother Nature innocently questioned.

Madhouse readjusted his glasses with a smile as he leaned on the table. "You believe it is the same for us then? That's why it's just us four here, correct?"

"I have my…suspicions."

Wanting to defend the honor of his staff, Arthur argued, "Could this not just be the work of Masquerade? We know little about them, but we do know they're resourceful."

Blackout let out an annoyed breath, "As of right now, until I get more definitive evidence, the most likely cause of the information leak was an informant among Sanctuary High's staff."

"And you're sure it's not one of us?" Madhouse asked with a smirk.

"I wouldn't be discussing this with you if I thought otherwise." Blackout walked closer toward the table, looking the principle dead in the eye. "Arthur, if you want to ensure that incidents like the ones that have been transpiring these past two weeks don't happen again, I need you to let me investigate your staff."

Arthur rubbed his face, mulling over the issue. Looking to his wife she gave his hand a gentle squeeze, a silent sign that she was with him no matter the decision. "Blackout….do what you have to do. I do not wish to doubt my fellow heroes, but if they are all innocent then I'm sure your investigation shall bear no fruit."

"Trust me, that's what I'm hoping for. Of course I'm sure I can trust all of you to be discreet about this matter, yes?"

The four all affirmed the investigators request.

"Good, now there's another troubling matter I must bring to light." Blackout drew everyone's attention to some photographs attached to the board; depicting rusted corpses. "As if two new villain groups on the rise wasn't bad enough, I fear an old one is being revived right here in Corasu city."

* * *

The morning after the USJ attack, the team understandably needed a day to rest. So the last thing we were expecting was for Reina to be taking visitors. As night approached, there was a simple knock on the basement door. Reina signaled for Gorou to get the door, and in walked a lanky man with long hair.

"So, this is the Syndicate huh?" The rather unkempt man chuckled and outstretched his hands in greeting to all of us in the room, "My name's Malachi."

* * *

 **Yet again thanks to my shitty schedule this chapter came out much later than I anticipated. But it's all good, because I do believe that I'll be able to get the next couple of chapters out quicker. Also here's something, so when I first started this I had planned on only coming up with a couple of students for Tsuneo's class, you know to make things easier for myself. But in my off time I've actually managed to almost fill out the full twenty student roster, so at this point I was just like "fuck it, guess we're doing a full class". Don't get me wrong, I had planned to introduce more from the get-go, I just wasn't expecting to do ALL twenty. So that's a thing that's happening next chapter. Thanks for reading, and I hope you continue to enjoy.**


	11. Cooperation

Chapter 11: Cooperation

Confused and nervous were the first two things to come to my mind when looking back and forth between Reina and her guest. Confused, because Reina would never give away our location unless someone was joining the team or if it was important. Considering in the past I at least knew somewhat in advance we'd be having a new member, I assumed that this guy must not be joining us, but if that were the case then why was he here? The nervousness; well that came from the way he looked at all of us. He wore a smile, but not one of pleasantries; it was more akin to the look a predator gets when it corners its prey. It seemed condescending in a way.

"Who is this!?" Libra asked accusatorily to Reina.

She was instantly at his side, a hand on his shoulder to signal him to sit down. "Li, I've got this handled."

Malachi paying no heed to them continued to look around. "Hmm odd, I only see four of you, but I know there was more at the Sanctuary attack. You guys not all stay in one place?"

Gorou explained from the kitchen, "Our other members are busy with their own private matters, as they usually are during our downtime. We-"

Malachi stopped paying attention to him and barely responded with, "Yeah yeah, that's cool man, just curious. Doesn't matter, I'm here to talk to the boss."

"I'm the one you're here to talk to," Reina said, catching his attention.

Reina's guest took his time as he took each step slowly towards us. "SR, you're certainly not what I was expecting," the vagrant said while looking at Reina from head to toe. "Foggy boy was far too modest when he was describing you."

" _She didn't tell him her name, so it's safe to assume he only knows the rest of us by our aliases as well."_ I continued to examine Malachi; there was just something about him that made me uneasy.

A wide smile grew on Reina's face, but I could tell straight away it was certainly not genuine, she never smiled that exaggeratedly. To make things weirder, she then clasped her hands together and got closer to Malachi, saying in a rather uncharacteristic sweet voice, "So Malachi, what can we do for you? Why'd you want to come see us in person?"

Malachi pocketed his hands in his worn old coat, smiling as he replied, "Why I came to see you in person? Lady, that's the only way to hash out a deal with someone. I'm tellin' you man, people are too damn connected to technology these days; a conversation online doesn't compare to a one on one interaction like this."

"Two on one interaction," Libra corrected from his seat.

Without his smile diminishing, Malachi's face twitched. He was looking at Libra like he was some kind of child butting in on an adult conversation. "You're…Libra right? I've heard of you I think? Pretty small time to be running with this group."

I wasn't sure if he legitimately didn't know Libra was our leader, or if he was just trying to mess with him, but either way, Libra responded just about how I expected.

Libra stood straight up out of his chair, trying to keep up his cool calculated façade by holding back the anger in his voice, "Small time? I'll have you know I'm the one who organized this group in the first place, and Reina is my second in command. If you want to work with or do anything involving The Syndicate, you're going to be talking to me as well."

Reina watched on nervously, Malachi still had that smile stuck on his face, but underneath I could tell he was looking at Libra differently. Even if I wasn't sure what it was, I knew it wasn't good.

"Hmm, alright man, alright." Malachi spun on his heel to face Reina once more, "Anyway, back to your first question from earlier, what you can do for me is join my new flock. Well, more like work alongside us."

Reina clearly shook at that suggestion, but didn't break character. "Work with you? Why that's very kind that you think we're worthy, but I don't think-"

"Worthy?" the vagrant laughed uproariously, "Lady, all are welcome in this family! Weak Quirks, strong Quirks, Quirkless nobodies, and now we'll even work with other groups to achieve our goal. See the problem was we were too limited in the past. Even Pros can't stand a chance against the horde I'm putting together, countless soldiers for the cause, fighting for my dear sweet lady!"

"What cause?" Libra asked with crossed arms and a questioning look behind his mask.

Malachi slowly turned back around to face Libra, grinning with a raised eyebrow. "Oh? Have you not heard the good word brother?"

"What? No," Libra scoffed.

The vagrant chuckled as he inched closer, looking like he could lash out at any second. "Brother, what I'm offering is salvation when this city burns in the fire of chaos. You'll be with a family, and someday soon after, with a benevolent woman who deeply cares for every one of her followers. In the near future, on a night of festivities, my flock and I will descend upon this city and slaughter the guardians of peace. Afterwards, we'll kill and spill the blood of the pathetic inhabitants of this cesspool." He was practically holding himself at this point, pacing away from Libra as he looked upward in bliss, "Man, it'll be beautiful retribution." I reflexively stepped back a little when he started muttering, "They'll all pay for defying my goddess…"

Libra just looked on in bafflement. Looking to Reina he said, "What did I tell you about associating with lunatics? I don't want to work with any crazy bastards, joining the group or just associating. This guy and his phony religion or whatever just won't do."

Out of Malachi's eyesight, Reina was violently shaking her head and mouthing the words _"No! Stop!"_

"Ph-phony? Ha…Ha! Phony!? Man are you calling my goddess…ha! Oh…" He shuddered while gripping his face with one of his hands. "Ah, I should just rip out your tongue…no, I should rip your eyelids off….no, maybe I can just curb stomp your skull until there's nothing left but a dirty red mess staining the floor…yeah, yeah! No one insults my dear sweet lady Morrigan behind her back…"

Libra was momentarily startled as Malachi made wide steps over to him, hand outstretched. But I couldn't let any violence happen between the two, so I anxiously stepped in and got in front of Libra, my hands raised while trying to calm down our guest. "Hey, Libra didn't mean what he said! He's just a little blunt sometimes, and misguided too."

Reina jumped in to help me, "Right, misguided! Libra's a leader yes, but he can be very ignorant. Surely you can forgive him for not knowing of Morrigan's greatness and love?"

Malachi paused and thought it over, looking between us before his eyes settled on me. "Yeah, I suppose you're right… The others were once ignorant to her greatness as well…" The unkempt man inched closer to me. "What about you little man? You wanna be a part of the goddess's fold?"

Surprised by the question I stuttered, "I…"

"Malachi-"

"Shut it," Malachi curtly said to Reina, cutting her off. "Heard you had a younger guy on your crew, but man, I didn't think it was a kid."

He got right up next to me now; his hand gripped my shoulder, fingers digging hard into my skin. I couldn't see what Libra's reaction was, but Reina was doing her best to suppress her worry, Gorou shared a similar reaction but it seemed like he was debating on whether he should step in or not.

"You know you almost seemed brave for a second there, stepping up to defend your boss man," his fingers dug in harder.

I wasn't a coward by any means, but my courage couldn't help but waver in front of this guy. There was just something about him that made me nervous.

"You know, you and your boss should be grateful I'm giving you the choice to be our allies. A lot of people talk about change or keeping the peace, blah blah blah. Man, I'm just gonna tear it all down; this city ain't worth the trouble Morrigan thought it was."

Upon feeling my shoulder stiffening, I looked down to see a rusty colored substance was seeping into my clothes and down into the skin beneath. The second I moved just a bit, his fingers held me in place even harder.

"If annoying shits like you and your boss get in my way, I'll kill you too."

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Libra getting ready to pull out some of his combat knives and cut the vagrant to bloody pieces, but held back when Malachi released me from his grip.

"But I know that ain't gonna happin' man! You guys wanna kill Pros or whatever right? Well there will be plenty of killing to be done if you work with me! Hell, I'll even give you guys your own fair share of cash if you work for me!" Malachi laughed happily as he patted my other shoulder.

Reina quickly stepped in to try and retake control of the situation. "That sounds wonderful Malachi; working under Morrigan's messenger sounds amazing! But can you give us the details of the work first?"

"Why the hesitation sister? Your group seemed awful gung-ho about this kind of stuff."

"We are, it's just that we'd like to discuss it with our other members. Just have one of your people send me the details of the work, and give us some time to consider it," Reina asked very calm and sweetly.

Malachi rubbed his bearded chin as he mulled over the suggestion. "Hmm, well…..ah what the hell. You know what? Just for you man, I'll give you some time to think on it. I mean, I guess you guys are a little better than the usual lost souls we pick up, and I'd appreciate it if you and your crew joined us man." Readjusting his coat, he strolled back over to the door and addressed Reina, "I've said my piece. I hope you'll make the right choice." He then looked at me and smiled, nodding almost mockingly as he departed with, "That goes for you too little man."

As if he owned the place he slammed the door and strolled out of the building. We waited for almost a minute until someone broke the silence, that someone being Reina.

In one swift motion she was already pulling the cloth at the shoulder of my shirt, a dull crack and crunch could be heard as the rusty cloth separated from my shoulder, which I now saw was a similar color. "Good, it's only surface level. This'll go away on its own soon, but you need to be more careful kiddo, a bit longer and this could have been permanent." Reina's expression returned to its usual one, albeit a little bit tense.

"Reina, care to explain what the hell that was all about!?" Libra growled at his partner, obviously appearing none too pleased with the surprise visit.

Reina rolled her eyes. "Look, I didn't know when he was supposed to show up! I thought I'd have a little more time to explain things to you before he came here. Oh, and nice job almost getting us killed Li!"

While those two got closer for a confrontation, Gorou had made his way over to me and was double checking to see if I was alright.

Now it was Libra's turn to roll his eyes, scoffing, "What? That dirty little street urchin? Please, I could kill him with one arm tied behind my back."

"Li, you don't get it. Even if you did somehow kill him, someone else would come back for revenge, and if you killed that person, someone new would come after that. And even after THAT, you'd have a whole mob after you."

Brushing my hand across my shoulder I asked Reina, "Who was that guy anyway? You were acting different around him."

"Of course I was, the guy's even more nuts now than he was back in the day. The last thing I'd want is to piss him off." She sighed and sat down on the couch to try and relax. "Just like he said, his name's Malachi. By himself he's nothing, but his boss is what everyone is scared of." She rubbed her temples, saying a phrase I've heard from her countless times before, "Ugh, I need a cup of coffee…Gorou-"

"Yeah, way ahead of you sis…" Gorou called out, already entering the kitchen.

Libra titled his head in curiosity, "Malachi's boss, who is it?"

Reina smiled at his lost expression. "You probably don't remember her, you weren't really into the whole villain scene yet Li, and you were away from Corasu at the time. But you've probably heard of her in passing at the very least. Morrigan, and her countless followers…She was a last bastion of hope for villains, someone who still wouldn't let go of the way things used to be around here. She had gathered one of the largest groups of villains this city had ever seen, so many that she had to divvy up control between what were referred to as 'apostles'. Malachi was her right hand man; he served as her messenger spreading orders to the other groups. If the one's below him were apostles that'd make him the prophet."

"I do remember hearing about this now that you mention it…" Libra said while rubbing his head. "Might have been around the time I had returned from my training. I think she had been arrested or something like that."

"Yeah, I think it was around then. Her hideout was raided by the police and a big raid team of Pros. Many of the followers were captured, but far more died trying to protect the apostles and Morrigan herself."

"So why did they all do it? Was she really that special?" I asked.

Instead of Reina answering, Gorou reentered the room and cut in, "Akio, for countless years Corasu city was a utopia for villains. Home to a war with no end in sight, a seemingly endless clash between Pros and villains."

Reina carried it on from there, "And once things slowly turned in the Pros favor, villains eventually got desperate, they sought out someone, anyone, to guide them and protect their way of life. Even as they slowly began to dwindle and weaken, villains still believed in Morrigan and her followers." Reina leaned her head back, staring up at the ceiling. "Morrigan was captured and hauled off to some prison out of town, and Malachi fled the city soon after."

"But now he's back," Libra said flatly.

"Right, he's probably gotten at least some of the old crew back, and only more will follow. The name Morrigan, can still carry a lot of weight around here to the right people," Reina stated rather troubled.

Libra paced idly as he rubbed his head in thought. "As my co-leader, I feel I should ask you, do you think it's worth joining this group?"

Reina sat up and held back a laugh, "With Malachi in charge? No way, just working alongside them will be dangerous enough. If it was Morrigan, I would say most definitely, but as it stands now…"

"Good, I just wanted to make sure we were on the same page."

Reina looked slightly defeated as she whispered, "Oh, so the co-leader's opinion didn't matter huh?"

Not noticing or simply ignoring what Reina had said, Libra carried on rather excitedly, "Actually…this…this could be good. Yeah, yeah!" He spun around to face the three of us, "Gather everyone, time for a group meeting."

Clearly not going to speak to us any further the three of us set out to gather the rest of the team. I told Cleric what was going on and she went to go get Crimson, who had still been cooped up in his room. Reina, meanwhile, got Rorschach, while Gorou went and got Habrok from the roof.

Soon enough everyone was gathered in living room to hear what Libra had to say. Libra paced idly in front of all of us, him and Reina explaining everything that had happened for the sake of those who were not there when Malachi had dropped by. There were mixed reactions all around, Rorschach seemed rather uncertain on the matter, Habrok saw no issue with turning the town into a bloodbath, and Crimson and Cleric didn't seem too keen on the idea of taking orders from someone like Malachi.

"We desire to kill off the Pros, yes? Then we have much to gain from joining this madman," Habrok stated in confidence.

Libra chuckled, "Oh we have a lot to gain alright. Killing two birds with one stone."

"Pardon?" Gorou said with a tip of his glasses, unsure of what Libra meant.

Libra stopped dead in his tracks and turned to all of us. "Tell me, what is our goal?"

"Killing Pro Heroes."

"Trying to make some money between all this bloodshed."

"Mass destruction."

A deadpan stare on his face, Libra sighed, "No…"

"We need to make things right, real Heroes and real villains," I suggested.

Libra snapped his fingers in joy, "Exactly! Our society is mired in false Heroes tainted by greed and vanity. But, balance cannot be properly restored if any thug off the street can act like a big shot and get away with mass destruction."

Rorschach cocked her head and leaned forward in her chair, "What do you mean by that?"

"If we let this Malachi go through with his plan to lay waste to the city, and he somehow succeeds in causing uncontrollable chaos, we'll just have the opposite problem on our hands," Libra explained.

As if finishing his thought for him, I said, "Too many villains?"

"Exactly, spot on again Akio. We're trying to achieve balance, order and chaos in perfect harmony. And I believe this cannot be achieved with Malachi and his followers around." Before anyone could jump to conclusions, Libra continued, "We will work with him however, for the time being at least. This 'night of festivities' he mentioned is when his grand plan is supposed to happen," rather theatrically, Libra spun around to face us with a grand sweep of his arms, "and that is when we'll betray him! We'll kill off countless Pros and deal with him all in one night!" Libra stood proudly reveling in his own genius.

Reina groaned, "Were you not listening? If we kill him one of his followers will just come along and kill us!"

Libra laughed quietly, "Who? He plans to declare war on every officer and Pro in this city all in one night. I'd be astonished to see how many men he'll have left after that!" Libra went back to pacing, "No, I think this a good plan. We'll work with him, perhaps make some decent money off of it, and then when the time comes kill off some Pros, and then leave him for dead."

Gorou nervously polished his glasses and spoke rather resigned, "Sounds risky Libra, but if this is the course you believe is best for us then I'm with you."

"Whether or not we go along with this plan at the end of the day a lot of Pros will end up dead. I shall go along with this plan if everyone else does," Habrok explained.

"Whatever you think is best boss, I'm just here to blow shit up," Crimson chuckled.

Rorschach was gently petting Shade, who had hopped into her lap during our discussion, and input, "If we're going to continue our big plans in the future, I think we could do with making a bit of a profit off of this madman's schemes."

"As long as they don't get us killed…" Cleric nervously whispered.

Libra nodded confidently and looked toward Reina. "It would seem we're all in agreement. Reina, make sure you work out a good deal between us and Malachi, be sure to keep me updated." With that Libra wandered off, probably to his room to work out future plans.

I looked to Reina; she was sighing and rubbing her temples. "I've got a bad feeling about this. He was worried about working with a big group to take on All Might, but now he thinks it's a good idea to get involved with Morrigan's most devout follower and then backstab him." Reina downed the rest of her coffee , looking absolutely agitated with having to actually get ready to set up for such arrangements.

I decided to try and ease her worries a bit, "I can see where he's coming from though. He's a little overeager, but this is a pretty big opportunity for us if we can pull it off. Malachi gives me a bad feeling, so quite frankly I'm all for doing something about him, but his plan of killing off countless Pro Heroes certainly seems appealing to our end goal as well."

Reina just stared down at her empty cup. "Well…he trusted us with the last operation, so I guess it's only fair we trust him now." Booting up her laptop, Reina got out of her seat and shuffled to the kitchen, cup in hand. "I'm going need more coffee…"

* * *

Simon had finally made his way to the old church serving as the new hideout for Morrigan's messenger. The sun having set an hour ago masked his approach in darkness, and thus none inside had noticed him approaching until he slammed open the two large church doors. He strode confidently toward the altar, looking left and right to see a decent sized gathering of villains, however he knew most of them were Levi's men. And there at the altar were a couple of his old associates, the competitive Levi, and the bloodthirsty Thaddaeus who was accompanied by some strange man with a burlap sack on his head.

"Well now, if it isn't Simon. About time you showed up," Thaddaeus commented from where he sat, continuing to sharpen his machete as Simon approached.

"My apologies had a bit of a delay."

"Yeah, Malachi mentioned something like that."

With the man being mentioned, Levi and Thaddaeus informed their fellow apostle why Malachi was currently absent, and more importantly what he had planned for the future. These plans certainly didn't sit well with Simon; not because he had a problem with killing for the cause, certainly not, but because this was not the will of Morrigan.

"And you two just went along with this? Neither of you tried to correct him!?" Simon growled accusatorily.

Idly playing with her phone, Levi laughed, "Why correct him? Me and my guys can make some money from all the looting to be done, and more importantly, it'll be a real challenge!"

Simon angrily switched his gaze to Thaddaeus.

"What? Don't look at me. I was never in it for the 'end goal'. Killing is killing to me."

"Pros…a-are bad…deserve…p-p-punishment…" Beelzebul muttered.

"This is insane; Malachi is out of line deciding things like this without Morrigan! I'm taking over control of this operation."

"Simon, that's what's called a chain of command. Malachi is Morrigan's voice when she's not around." Levi pocketed her phone, stood up, and casually stretched while circling Simon. "You should really respect Morrigan's wishes. I mean, you seem to forget that she's just as important to us as she is to you."

"You really think you can talk to me like that?" Simon said coldly, stepping up to glare down at the woman.

"Yes, I can," Levi smiled off to the side.

Following her gaze, Simon could see that many of the men obviously working under Levi had already started to draw their firearms, some readying their Quirks. The men didn't go any further, but stood at the ready, no doubt waiting to see if Levi had a command for them.

"Had plenty of time to refocus on the family business while I was away," the woman stated proudly. She then pulled out a pistol from a holster at her waist, smiling casually at the weapon she said, "Back home these things are a dime a dozen, although I guess it's good for business that firearms are so restricted out here." Levi nodded her head at the crowd she had gathered, "These are few local boys I conscripted, and I got more coming from home when my brother makes it out here. Don't play a game you know you can't win Simon," she finished with a self-satisfied smirk.

Simon looked agitated at all of Levi's men staring back at him cautiously. He observed pistols, shotguns, and rifles some of which looked to be automatic. Noticing his expression Levi chuckled, "This is nothing compared to what my big bro will be smuggling into the country."

It wasn't unusual for Levi to provide firepower to the group, but automatic rifles and things further beyond that didn't sit well with Simon. He shared Morrigan's sentiments entirely; most Pros should be killed, but there are those that should be spared. Not to mention she always preached the idea that citizen death should be avoided if possible; the enemy is Heroes not the weaklings that hide behind them. Looking for any kind of support, Simon turned to face his other fellow apostle.

"Thaddaeus-"

Simon stopped when he saw that the ferocious looking man was already on his feet, casually tapping his machete against his own shoulder while pacing. "Unless Morrigan is around to pull my leash, I'm gonna keep running wild," he stated with a devilish grin. "That's just the way things have always been."

Simon gritted his teeth, angry at himself that he didn't see this coming. He should have known better than to think Levi and Thaddaeus of all people could follow the rules without their dear leader around. He thought Malachi was the worst of all however. Destroying the city and slaughtering people randomly was not Morrigan's intentions, and worse yet, he knew that this plan would just end in failure.

Thaddaeus strolled over and wrapped an arm around the brooding Simon. "Relax Simon; Malachi knows what he's doing. Trust me, with the three of us helping him out, Corasu city might just end up wiped off the map."

Levi gave a knowing smile, "It's true."

Reserved, Simon just grumbled and found a place where he could sit in silence waiting to confront Malachi when he returned. As the night passed he just sat back and looked around at the heathens Thaddaeus had brought in, and then looked at the bloodthirsty killers Levi had armed. He sighed with a whisper, "I wish you were here to get things back on track Morrigan."

* * *

It was another typical day in class for Tsuneo. He was still certainly viewed as one of the weaker students around, but he proved to be capable none-the-less, and due to his good nature, was able to make a few friends as well. There were still things weighing on his mind however, mainly Kimiko going back to her usual routine of belittling him, and then there was the matter of Akio.

Mr. Action gathered everyone's attention when an exclamation mark flashed on his face screen, joyfully informing his class, "Class, I'd like to remind you that shortly after lunch we'll be heading out to what I like to call," he did a little twirl before pointing at his students, "the Action Arena!"

"The what?" Tsuneo said dumbfounded.

Hisa leaned over and whispered, "It's that building by the track field, Action uses it for training and sparring matches."

Mr. Action front flipped and landed on Hisa's desk, crouching down to look at the two. "It's more than that little Hisa Mamoru! My Action Arena is not simply for training! It is for simulated training!" He then stood straight up to look at the rest of the class. "I'll go into the details once we all gather there, but for now, I'll assign teams!" Action backflipped off the desk and got back to the front of the class. "So, who wants to be a team captain?" Action asked, a question mark on his screen looking from side to side.

Kimiko and Kenichi had raised their hands immediately, while others reluctantly rose up their hands as well. Action put his two index fingers together and tapped his chin while he hummed in thought.

"Kimiko and Tsuneo! You two shall be our team captains!"

"Wait what!?" Tsuneo blurted out in surprise, Kimiko already turned around in her seat to give him a death stare.

"But he didn't raise his hand," Shun objected.

"I just asked who _wanted_ to be a team captain, I never said you'd actually be made one," Action responded. The metallic teacher began pointing rapidly at his students as he continued, "Akane, Hisa, Natsumi, Yuina, Kenshin, Miu, Junji, Atsuhiko, and Eiji, you're all on Tsuneo's team. You'll be playing the role of Heroes." Much more pointing ensued as Action listed off the rest, "Ayame, Mirou, Satomi, Shun, Kotone, Toki, Kenichi, Kumo, and Hiroto, you're all on Kimiko's team and you'll be taking on the role of villains."

Before anyone could object any further, the bell chimed.

"Ah, the bell! Alright my young pupils go forth and consume some nourishment at the cafeteria! For afterwards we shall meet at the Action Arena to have a friendly (yet very violent) competition of strength and wit!" ordered Action, doing a handstand and pointing to the door with his leg. "Ah yes, and you'll also be wearing your costumes, so get ready to change as well!"

Everyone began filing out of the room in small groups, all except Tsuneo and Hisa, who stopped to talk to a now upright Mr. Action. The teacher placed his hands on his hips, a cheery smiley face popping up on his screen face. "Did you two need something?" he asked with a tilt of his head.

"Yeah, Mr. Action, can Hisa take over for me as team captain?"

The digital image on the teacher's face matched the laughter coming from underneath his helm before suddenly stopping with a sharp, "No."

"But Mr. Action, Kimiko will kill him!" argued Hisa.

"Ah yes, that Kimiko. She seems like such a sweet girl from a distance, but in reality she can be quite fiercely competitive! And cold! And rude to those she deems beneath her! You know what I dare say she isn't very sweet at all!" Action cheered with delight.

"Yeah, we know! She nearly killed him during the impromptu sparring matches from last week!" Hisa shouted.

Action stroked his chin with a far off look in his digital eyes, "I'm still amazed she took him down in less than a minute without even using her Quirk…"

Tsuneo looked down at the floor with disappointment, Hisa giving him an understanding pat on the shoulder.

Action then shook his head side to side with a dismissive look. "Hisa, pardon Tsuneo and I for a moment would you." The pink haired girl was confused, Tsuneo sharing her sentiment. Reluctantly, Hisa gave a little bow, and then exited the room, mentioning to her friend that she'd be waiting for him. With her gone, Mr. Action turned to address the lone student in the room. "Now listen my boy, I know how I may come across to some of you-"

"Unprepared, unusual, a little bit unhinged-"

"Whoa there, let's take it a little easy so no one's feelings get hurt!" Action cried. His smiling face flashed and turned into a more neutral one, "Anyway, the point is I didn't pick you at random my boy. You're an excellent student when it comes to the academic side of things, and from what I've seen you're always cheering on your classmates and helping them strive to be better." Action then wrapped one arm around Tsuneo's neck and pulled him in close, poking his chest as he continued, "But you're not focusing on yourself. You're a great supporter and a great second in command! But being a Pro means that sometimes you'll have to take charge of a group, or even rely solely on your own skill to see things through."

"Oh, I see…" Tsuneo couldn't help but feel a little disappointed in himself, since he assumed this meant that Action did view him as the weakest in class. He wouldn't be wrong though, so far Tsuneo had mostly played a supporting role in their exercises or just gave encouragement to his fellow classmates…most of them anyway.

Mr. Action released Tsuneo with a large slap on the back that nearly sent him tumbling over. "Buck up boy! I'm just trying to give you a nudge in the right direction! Take this leadership role by the reigns, lead your fellow Heroes into battle, and then defeat your rival! This can be done!"

Tsuneo rubbed his aching upper back and asked, "And if I mess up and Kimiko wins?"

Mr. Action's face image changed into an ellipsis, "Then it's a good thing we keep Nurse Mamba on stand-by."

On that ominous note, Tsuneo thanked Mr. Action for the confidence boost, which helped for the most part, and left the classroom. Walking down the halls for a few brief moments the boy soon met back up with his new friend Hisa and explained how he'd be taking the leadership role.

"Huh, so I guess Mr. Action is just trying to help you in his own way," Hisa stated, stretching her muscles as the two made their way to the cafeteria.

"Yeah, so I guess I'll just have to give it my all!"

"That's the spirit!"

Along the way the two students ran into Shun, who fell in step alongside them. The three idly chatted as they went to get their food.

"So, you eating with us Shun?" Tsuneo inquired.

"Heh, not today. Kimiko wants everyone on her team to sit with her so we can talk about this mock battle after lunch."

Upon hearing that, Hisa rolled her eyes, "She's taking this way too seriously."

Speaking of the devil, Kimiko passed by the three with her lunch, and casually manipulated the water within her cup to launch out and hit Tsuneo in the face. "Move it loser," is all she said whilst passing by, not stopping to see the three's reactions.

Tsuneo just groaned in annoyance and wiped the water from his face. Shun was clearly in thought as his sharp blue eyes narrowed on Kimiko still walking away.

"Well that was rude," Hisa uttered.

Tsuneo dried his face with the sleeve of his school uniform, responding to his friend's statement with, "Nah, that's pretty normal. I'm used to it."

The three now waited in line to receive their lunch, Shun decided to make conversation by asking, "So why does Kimiko treat you like that anyway? I mean, she's pretty rude to everyone else, but it seems like she despises you."

Tsuneo rubbed the back of his head in slight embarrassment, "Despise is a strong word, it's more like… an intense dislike." The three moved slowly in line, Tsuneo finding a way to describe his situation to his friends without revealing too much. "A long time ago when we were kids, the two of us had a mutual friend. The three of us all got along and played together all the time. It might be hard to believe but Kimiko was incredibly kind back then, a little meek even."

Hisa chuckled, "Oh yeah? So what changed?"

"Well one day we found out that..." Tsuneo struggled to find the words, "our friend's mother was killed, and it turns out she was a villain."

His two classmates were stunned and listened on in silence.

"Villains…are definitely a sore spot for Kimiko. When she found all this out she told our friend to never speak to her again, said that he was despicable for crying over a villain. She expected me to stick by her side, but I couldn't leave him. So in the end she ended up hating the both of us, him for his mother, and me because I sympathized with him."

Hisa certainly looked disheartened after hearing such a tale. "I know villains are evil and all, but still, it was his mom…sometimes even when your family does something terrible, you just can't bring yourself to hate them."

Tsuneo just kept shuffling forward in line, trying to mask just how upset remembering all these things had made him. _"We were so close too, she had almost moved on. Akio…she was worried about you when you went missing. But now…now her anger has been rekindled. Hell, it's probably worse than it ever was. I can't just give up on you though…"_

Hisa's words brought Tsuneo out of his thoughts. "You said villains are a sore spot for her, but what's the reason for that? Not that anyone really needs a reason to hate them…"

"Oh… well when she was still really little a villain killed her parents… it was that guy with the fire Quirk that burned down all those buildings-"

Shun snapped his fingers, almost sounding excited as he explained, "Ah you're referring to Wildfire I take it. They say it took almost the entire police force and over a dozen Pros to finally get him under control and captured."

Tsuneo could only nod and say, "Yeah and two of those Pros were her parents…"

Hisa shook her head, "Look we should probably stop talking about all this depressing stuff. How about-"

"Oi! What are you lookin' so damn sad for!?" Kenichi shouted from across the way. He had a tray of food in his hands, most likely on his way to sit with those he had been paired up with. "You better put up a good fight out there Tsuneo! I don't care what others say about you, you better give me a damn challenge!"

Shun leaned in to interject, "Why are you challenging him specifically?"

Kenichi's face turned quizzical, as if Shun asked an incredibly dumb question. "Isn't obvious? He's the team captain, which means I'll get more credit for takin' him down. But I at the very least want him to struggle for that victory he can't win, doesn't make it feel worthwhile otherwise," he finished with a wolfish grin. Suddenly, Kenichi's face switched back to confusion as he looked at Shun. "Why the hell are you with the enemy anyway? You won't drag our team down just because you want to play nice with everyone!"

Shun pinched the bridge of his nose and responded in a slightly annoyed tone, "Kenichi I assure you that I-? AHH!"

Without warning Kenichi had set his food aside and lifted Shun up above his head, carrying him back to a table in the distance which Kimiko was sitting at. Hisa and Tsuneo could only watch on helplessly as their friend was carried off.

"Kenichi! Put me down! I still haven't gotten my lunch yet!"

"Traitors don't deserve lunch!"

"You and Kimiko are taking this too damn seriously!"

Eyes shut and shaking her head side to side, Hisa said, "Guess we'll see him at the arena."

The two continued to wait in line for a short time longer, talking about Tsuneo's past as well as the upcoming exercise that their energetic teacher had prepared for them. Once receiving their food, the duo made their way to the table they usually sat at, only today they'd be missing the usual company of Shun, Toki, and Ayame. However, just before they got there, the two stopped dead in their tracts when they nearly bumped into the giant red girl standing in front of them. The large girl looked down at the two of them with her usual emotionless face.

"Oh! Hey Akane. Um, didn't see you there," Tsuneo said to the girl towering over him.

For being so large and intimidating looking, Akane's voice was always quite quiet and often deadpan. "Didn't see me? Yuina must be wrong then."

"Huh? What'd she say?" Hisa asked.

"She said one of the perks to hanging out with me outside of school would be that she'd never lose me in a crowd."

" _Well Yuina certainly wouldn't be wrong…"_ Tsuneo wryly thought.

Akane was the tallest in the class, standing at a good 6 feet 4 inches, which isn't all that impressive to her since she's the shortest in her family. If that wasn't eye-catching enough, her skin was a dark-ish red; the two horns protruding from above her forehead sharing the same color. Her incredibly long wavy black hair, pointed ears, and golden irises completed the look that was befitting of her Quirk.

Akane Akashiro, her Quirk, **Oni**. Akane's Quirk gives her the appearance and abilities of an oni, such as her amazing strength, sharp claws, piercing horns, and raw power.

"Anyway, did you need something from us Akane?" Tsuneo asked.

The giant girl retained her monotone voice and said, "Need something? No… I just wanted to sit with you guys because Hiroto is sitting with Kimiko today, and she doesn't want me there."

When they had begun their new school lives at Sanctuary, Tsuneo noticed that Kimiko had another person in class to ridicule. That person being Akane. Akio at the very least only had a villain for a mother, but Akane comes from a long line of villains, the only exception being an aunt who she lives with. However unlike Akio, Akane had taken Kimiko's harassment in stride and merely ignored it. Whether people's reactions to her actually bothered her or not, Tsuneo still couldn't help but feel bad for her, especially when Toki gave her accusatory looks or when Ayame would recoil in fear around her.

"If you guys don't want me here just say the word," she continued.

"What? No, please sit with us," Hisa insisted. "I'm sure Tsuneo doesn't mind either."

Knowing firsthand what it's like to be excluded, Tsuneo smiled and welcomed her to the table. "Of course not."

Seeing that Kimiko had somehow managed to gather everyone on her team to her table, the remaining students of the class had assumed that Tsuneo wished to do something similar. Thus Tsuneo's classmates were soon at his table and sitting alongside each other.

"Eiji! Wake up!" Junji shouted with a firm smack on the sleeping Eiji's head.

The boy with long forest green hair lifted his head slightly from the table, yawning with annoyance, "Do you want me to help in the exercise or not…? It's bad enough Mr. Action is making us do… this stupid…" his words trailed off as he rested his head against his arm upon the table and tried to get back to sleep.

"Relax Junji, we'll have time to talk strategy when we get to the arena," Atsuhiko cut in before Junji could continue to disturb his sleeping classmate.

"Yeah Junji, don't get your panties in a twist," Miu snickered with a taunting smile.

"Miu give the class rep some slack, he just wants to make sure we're all ready to-"Hisa was cut off by Eiji, who spoke but didn't bother to move or open his eyes.

"Ready to get our asses kicked?"

Those words made Tsuneo think about their situation for a moment. At first glance Eiji wasn't wrong; Kimiko, Mirou, and Kenichi were top students in the class in some form or another. Kenichi was fast and powerful, Mirou was intelligent and tactful, and Kimiko was a powerhouse has long as she had access to water. Before, Tsuneo had thought that'd be an issue for Kimiko, but he soon learned that her hero costume took care of that problem.

Yuina leaned on the table to address everyone, "Come on guys, we've got this! Tsuneo's smart, he can figure out a way for us to win…whatever it is Action wants us to do!"

"I'm assuming it involves us beating each other up, that's what it usually is," Hisa idly said aloud.

Tsuneo remembered Action's words, _'Take this leadership role by the reigns'_. _"Right. If I want to be a Pro I need to be able to guide others, even if that might be against villains that are more powerful than us. Better to learn this lesson in a controlled environment I guess."_ The boy stood up and all his classmates at the table looked at him. "Look guys, I know some of you are thinking that this might be a waste of time or a pointless endeavor, but I promise you it isn't. So far every time we've done an exercise facing off against each other, Kimiko,Mirou, and Kenichi always come out on top, but not today. Being a Pro means smiling in the face of danger, so we need to go out there and give it our all, or we're doomed to fail before we even start." Tsuneo stared back at the groups mixed reactions.

Eiji yawned and stood up stretching his arms. "Whatever. I guess I'll put a little…effort in. Maybe beating those three… will make Action leave me alone when I'm trying to sleep in class."

The chime of the bell signaled that lunch was ending, everyone in the lunchroom getting ready to head off to perform in whatever spectacle Action had planned for them. At the sound, Kenshin stood up while striking an elegant pose, his white irises sparkling like crystals as he declared, "Very well, I'll trust your leadership Tsuneo, but you better not dare waste my talent. I know the ladies would just die if they couldn't see my magnificence in action."

"Hardly," Hisa scoffed under breath.

As the group began to move forward, Junji came alongside Tsuneo and tipped his dark tinted glasses with a smile, "As your class rep, I have an order for you Tsuneo."

"Yeah?"

"Lead us to victory."

Akane had also joined by Tsuneo's side, giving him a simple thumbs up to assure him that she was confident for what lied ahead for their team.

The two teams met up at about the same time when they reached Mr. Action's arena. The structure was a short distance away from the track field, and was a fairly sized circular arena with a retractable roof. The place paled in comparison to the stadiums in the city, but was certainly good enough for Action's training exercises (which was often something combat related). The twenty students entered into the arena's entrance, where Mr. Action stood triumphantly waiting for them.

"Welcome my dear students! I hope you're all ready for some action!" he shouted with giddiness, his screen face happy as could be.

"Sir, you have still yet to tell us what we'll be doing exactly," Mirou pointed out.

"Ah! Of course!" Action backflipped away and quickly returned with a rolling whiteboard, using a red marker to point at his diagram of the center of the arena. "It's quite simple! Within the arena I've had Professor Blanc prepare this simple layout of structures," the metallic man pointed to what looked like depictions of multiple tiny buildings surrounding one large one in the center. "This simple three story structure will be at the center of the arena and will house the villains, the much smaller single story structures will serve as the starting points for our heroes-" the energetic teacher noticed a raised hand and pointed to him with a shout, "Yes, Junji?"

"Why don't we just have this exercise over at the facility used for the entrance exam like Blade Dancer does with her class?" the boy questioned.

"Because the structures created within are only temporary and can be destroyed freely, which means more heart pounding destructive action! And damn it I pumped a lot of my own personal cash into getting this place built, so you bet I'll be getting my money's worth by using it!" Action declared, countless dollar signs flashing on his screen face.

The children weren't quite sure how to respond to that so in the silence Action explained the exercise further.

"Anyhow, in the center building on the top floor, a bomb powerful enough to take out a city block will be guarded by the villains," Action slid over to the group on the right and pointed, "that's you!" He hopped back over to his original position, "In addition, we'll have three hostage dummies being held somewhere on the ground floor. The villain's mission will be to ensure the hostages aren't rescued, and that the bomb doesn't leave the building or get deactivated. Heroes, you'll also be given these handcuffs!" the teacher said as he twirled while throwing up multiple handcuffs into the air, which quickly landed on the floor in front of them. "Cuff a villain and they will be out of the exercise!"

"Well then what are we supposed to do?" Kenichi piped up.

"Villain's if your opponent surrenders or it's clear they cannot carry on, they will be out of the exercise!" Mr. Action's face flashed into one of dead seriousness, "I trust you children all know your limits and won't purposely bring unnecessary harm to each other." Almost as quickly as it had changed the first time, Action's screen switched back to its usual red smiley face, "So, head off to the locker rooms and get changed! Your costumes are already within waiting to be donned!"

The boys and girls split off to head to their appropriate locker rooms, Tsuneo looked back to see Mr. Action pointing finger guns at him and winking confidently, no doubt silently cheering on the student. The ten boys all entered the locker room and found each of their own cases which contained their hero costumes; Tsuneo proudly opened his and brought out the outfit his father had helped him design before attending Sanctuary. Tsuneo's Quirk was a simple one, and so he felt it'd be best if he kept his outfit simple as well; a dark blue bodysuit with white highlights, white gloves and boots, and white elbow guards and leg guards.

As the boys were just about done donning their costumes, Kenichi called out to Tsuneo, "Hope you're ready to get your ass kicked Tsuneo!"

The grey haired student looked back to see Kenichi and the four other boys apart of Kimiko's team exiting the locker room. Kenichi's outfit looked like old civilian clothes at first glance, but Professor Blanc assured Mr. Action that it was purely aesthetic and would have the same quality as every other student's costume. He wore ragged boots, ripped jeans, a tattered black over-shirt, and most notably of all he wore no actual shirt under the over-shirt. Kenichi seemed proud to show off how muscled he was even without his Quirk.

With reassuring looks from his own teammates, Tsuneo and his cohorts headed out soon after, making their way to the arena proper. The group soon reconvened with the girls who were already waiting outside, observing the simple grey building structures that had been set up.

Action stood proudly staring up at the sky. "What a beautiful day for some action!" The metallic teacher spun around to face his class, "Alright students, take your places! I'll be over in the booth to watch through the cameras with Nurse Mamba!" he said with a jutted out thumb pointing to an observation booth placed near the top rows of the seating sections. "I'll let you kids know when we're starting, until then why don't you talk strategy with your team."

Watching their teacher bounce from place to place making his way to the observation booth, the two groups split off and headed to their assigned starting areas. The villains to the center building, and the heroes to one of the single story structures nearby.

* * *

Arthur walked happily down the hall, quite thankful that he'd get a break from work and would instead spend some time observing the schools promising firs years from Action's class. He stroked his beard idly wondering what Action had cooked up for his class today. The principle slowed down when his colleague Dr. Madhouse, "Ah Madhouse, where are you off to my friend?"

"Looking for you actually heard you were off to watch Action's class today," the doctor said after taking a drag from his half-finished cigarette. "Was wondering if I could join you?"

The older man warmly chuckled with an outstretched arm, "Of course my friend! Er… don't you have work to do?"

Walking along with the kingly principal the doctor puffed out some smoke and laughed, "Hardly. Besides, sometimes instead of waiting for the patients to come to you, you gotta go to them."

"Or you just make some yourself," Arthur jabbed, admittedly in poor taste of Madhouse's past.

"Geez Arthur, and here I didn't think you were capable of making a mean joke."

"And for a time I didn't think a villain could have a change of heart."

After removing the cigarette from his mouth Madhouse waved his hand as if brushing away the conversation. "Ugh let's not talk about that. I don't know which was more embarrassing; the way I acted, or the fact that Mother Nature's sappy little speech actually worked on me."

Arthur laughed and gave the doctor a pat on the back, "Well no need to focus on the past, let's focus on the future! Action's confident that his class will give us quite a show at the upcoming sports festival."

Relaxed once more Madhouse commented, "They better, if they don't give the locals something memorable they're going to forget all about it when they watch U.A's a week later."

With nothing more than a curt nod the two carried on in silence and they eventually made the trek over to the Action Arena. Arthur led the way through the structure over to the observation booth, opening the door to a dim room with a few chairs, a lone window with the curtains drawn, and a wall of screens showing off what the cameras in the arena could see. The principle then spied Nurse Mamba kindly checking on all the cameras functionality while Mr. Action was doing a headstand.

"Arthur!" the metallic man quickly got to his feet with a jaunty bounce, "glad you could come to observe my class. And I see you've brought the good doctor!"

"Hey Action, just came here to kill some time."

Carefree as can be, Mr. Action shrugged with a, "Well alright. Have a seat and watch the show!"

While Madhouse was pulling up a chair, Arthur grabbed one as well and whispered to him, "We got a little sidetracked earlier so I forgot to ask, are you really just here to kill time?"

With a smirk Madhouse responded, "Well that was technically true," lowering his voice even further the doctor explained, "Blackout and Battering Ram have been bothering me with this whole investigation thing…"

"Battering Ram?"

"Heh, oh yeah, guess Blackout forgot to mention that he's looking into the kids too. And so he's got Ram helping him look into things."

"What?"

The lackadaisical doctor leaned back in his chair and shrugged, "Take it up with him later if you're curious. Why don't we just relax and watch the show."

As the two sat behind Action and Nurse Mamba waiting for them to finish setting up, Arthur kept glancing over to the Mad Hero, wondering about what Blackout was up to. _"The rest of the faculty is one thing, but the children too? But… his judgment is not wrong, not often anyway. I suppose I'll leave it be for now… "_ Arthur absently thought.

* * *

Tsuneo stood before his team alongside Hisa who would serve as his second in command.

"Alright, so just to double check that we've got this down," Tsuneo stepped away so he could stand with his half of the team, "Junji, Natsumi, Yuina, Eiji, and I will sneak inside the building to save the hostages and deactivate the bomb. Hisa, you'll take Akane, Atsuhiko, Miu, and Kenshin to go distract them at the front entrance."

Yuina tilted her head back and forth. "But will that like work? I mean, Mirou's smart, so won't he know like right away what we're up to?"

Hisa decided to answer in place of Tsuneo, "Even if they do know we've split up, they'll just have to divide as well if they want to stop us."

Suddenly, the group could hear Action's booming voice over the arenas announcement system, "Alright heroes and villains, it's time to begin the exercise. Best of luck to the both of you! Now then," a large horn sounded, "action!"


End file.
